We go to Temples and pray before God - we have immense faith in our traditions.
There are so many beautiful temples all over Tamil Nadu, in existence for
centuries.
Though not much of web presence, ThiruPaampuram is
a small village in Thiruvarur Dist – Kudavasal taluk. This place with origins to Chola dynasty lies
near Kollumangudi on the way to Karaikal from Kumbakonam. A famous temple
of Sri Seshapureeswarar exists here. The
antiquity is revealed by the inscriptions
dating back to Rajaraja, Rajendra Chozha, Saraboji kings. Many artists hail from here – famous being
Nadaswaravidwan Thirupampuram Nataraja Sundaram Pillai and his son N Swaminatha
Pillai.
Hundreds of thousand miles away – otherwise
unconnected is the US State of Indiana in
the mid-western and Great Lakes regions of North America.
The
David Owsley Museum of Art (DOMA) is an art museum located in the Fine Arts
building on the campus of Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA. It is
named in honour of David Owsley,
grandson of Frank C. Ball (one of the five Ball Brothers), to recognize his
donations of $5 million and over 2,300 works of art. The museum is home to
approximately 11,000 works (mostly paintings, photographs, prints and
sculptures).
Image
credit : www.ice.gov
In
2005, it acquired a Chola-era idol of Shiva- Parvathi from Subhash Kapoor's Art
of the Past gallery in New York ~ without realizing that the provenance papers of this statue are fake,
given Kapoor's record. Today’s Times of India reports that US Govt has seized
the idol or rather voluntarily returned.
Yet another bronze idol looted from a Tamil Nadu temple allegedly by
Subhash Kapoor has been returned by a museum in the US to the country's
department of homeland security (DHS) this week. Ball State University's Owsley
Museum has returned the Chola bronze statue of Shiva and Parvati to DHS.
Heritage
enthusiast S Vijay Kumar, who has helped to locate stolen temple idols in many
countries, had located this statue in the museum.TOI in July 2015 had reported
that it was sold to the museum by Subhash Kapoor for $100,000 in April
2005.Kapoor had a fraudulent provenance attributed to art collector Leo Figiel
who claimed that he acquired the idol from a European collection in1969 - most Kapoor provenances go back to this year
since 1970 is the cut-off year set by UN for transfer of cultural property .
“The bronze sculpture of Shiva and Parvati, from the Chola Period, measuring 5
x 12.25 x 6 inches, was sourced illegally from India under the direction of
Kapoor and smuggled into the US. Around 2004, the stolen idol was delivered to
Kapoor's former Madison Avenue gallery , Art of the Past,” said a DHS
release.The release quoted the museum director Robert La France as saying that
the department had presented convincing evidence that the work was stolen and
its documentation was false. In July, TOI had reported that the base of the
statue has an inscription in Tamil that reads: “Thipampaapuram Sivigai Naayagar.”
TOI had attempted to trace this village.
At
Dheepambalpuram in Thanjavur, Thyagarajan, the priest at the local Shiva
temple, said there may have been such a “pradoshamurthy“ in the temple but had
got damaged many decades ago. Though present HR&CE records do not show such
an idol, it is possible that the statue was lost or stolen long back from the
temple.Vijay Kumar who had helped to gather evidence says that the Ball State
bronze's hand and feet had indeed been damaged and a poor repair had been
attempted. While it is not yet established that the idol does belong to
present-day Dheepambalpuram, the priest Thyagarajan says the temple has 27
bronze idols that are ancient and some have similar inscriptions on their
pedestal.
What
a sad state of affairs – the idol that should have been worshipped in a Temple
built by Kings centuries ago – gets stolen, there appears much evidence to
trace it back – yet the authorities who manage the temple do not even know what
the Temple should have had.
Temples are
religious places – Every temple has its own significance brought by the Lord
there – certainly nothing to do with the management – and Officials clamour for
obtaining ISO certificates for temples.
As if these are business houses, they have Vision Mission
statements. Here is one certification
for a very famous temple : To provide high quality service through safety, security,
queue facilities for darshan, ‘annadhanam' to devotees, maintaining cleanliness
in the temple premises by office administration.”
PS : many thanks to Times of India and Mr S Vijayakumar for their efforts.
