The roof and floor of Temple ~ before the High Court

There prevails great sense of anguish amongst devotees who daily go to Sri Parthasarathi Swami Temple.  They have been protesting and voicing their grievances on the shoddy make up of the ground and clumsy upper cover ~ the Lord deserves the Best of Things…….

Here is something that appeared in ‘Times of India’ Chennai edition of date; reproduced as it is. 

Devotees not floored by govt’s temple roofing idea

A Subramani TNN

Chennai: The eighth-century Sri Parthasarathy Temple at Triplicane is in the middle of a bitter legal battle over the government’s plan to remove its coarse-stone flooring and erect a semi-permanent roof.

    A group of devotees has filed a petition in the Madras high court, saying that besides permanently damaging the antiquity of the temple, the move to cover the ‘prakara’ and ‘pradakshina’ course would hurt religious sentiments of worshippers.  Dharshan of the ‘gopuram’ and ‘vimanam’ of the temple is a prescribed ritual that devotees follow, they said, adding that officials of the Hindu religious & charitable endowments (HR&CE) department are removing the coarse stoneflooring and installing polished granite flooring along the passageway around the shrine.

    “This will result in the devotees’ bare feet getting scorched in the summer,” they said, adding that coarse granite flooring naturally absorbs rainwater and provides acupressure relief to devotees doing ‘pradakshina’.

    The HR&CE commissioner, P Dhanapal, however, alleged that the petitioners filed the plea with ulterior motives and informed the court that the granite flooring had been made rough now and that it was being done for the convenience of the public.      Another donor-sponsored project, the construction of a ‘semi-permanent’ roof, is being carried out to protect devotees from sun and rain, he said in a counter-affidavit in the court.   Work is being done on the request of devotees, Dhanapal said, adding that the ‘sthapathi’ (the temple architect) and ‘bhattachariars’ (priests) too had been consulted.  “It will not hamper the customary viewing of the gopuram by devotees or impair the architectural character or rainwater harvesting in the temple,” he said.

    The petitioners, however, are not convinced.   “If the roof is a temporary structure, the temple authorities have not said how long it  will be in pace or  whether it has been mentioned as ‘semi-permanent’ in the approval order,” they said in their reply.

    Noting that the chaitanyam (divine powers) of a temple is channelled according to its design and construction, they said, “Where the temple has to be covered and where it should be left open is determined at the time the temple is constructed.”  

    After it was built by the Pallava king Danthivarman, the temple authorities modified and expanded the structure. But, unlike the HR&CE authorities, no king ever thought it fit to alter the original temple architecture, the reply said.

    The matter is expected to generate heated debate when it is taken up for further hearing by Justice D Hariparanthaman on Monday.