VELUDHARAN TEMPLES VISIT

Friday 2 September 2016

St. Thomas Mount National Shrine, St Thomas Mount, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

A Continuation to the previous post.

27^th August 2016.

Our first stop after a good lunch at Balaji Bhavan at Chrompet/ Pallavaram was at St Tomas mount. We missed the way to the Garrison Church, since the old road through cantonment was closed. Left our van at the parking lot and climbed to the top. During my previous trip they allowed to take vehicle till top of the hill. It was drizzling . After hearing brief details of the shrine and William Lambton from our young guide Nandan we went around the shrine.

St. THOMAS MOUNT NATIONAL SHRINE

Some of the details of the St. Thomas shrine are ….

The details below are taken from the leaflet purchased from the shrine stall, there may be some controversies about the years, which I am not interested.

The St, Thomas mount is 300 feet above the sea level. There are 135 granite steps constructed in the year 1726 CE, by Coja Petrus Uscan an Armenian, who constructed the Marmalong bridge of Saidapet. The shrine was constructed in the year 1523 CE dedicated to mother Marry and named as "SENHORA DA EXPECTACAO” ( Expected mother’s shrine) by Portuguese.

St. Thomas’s rib bone is kept in a vessel at the centre of the cross. Blood stains are observed from the cross, made by St. Thomas on 18^th December 1558 CE and last seen was during the year 1704. The inscription the cross was translated during the year 1908 CE and read as ‘ Messiah brought peace through this cross”.

It is believed that the paintings of Mother marry, belongs to the year 50 CE and Jesus Christ in the year 1727 CE.

There are two tombs at the entrance of the shrine dated 1759 and 1764. There is also a banyan tree which is estimated to be of more than 175 years old with Jesus ( has no home ) lying under the cover of a cloth. It was told that Pope John Paul visited the shrine during his visit to madras, whose statue is also installed on the top of the hill.

William Lambton’s statue, ( who was the person who started the trigonometrical survey of India ) is under the banyan tree and the same was installed during the year 2011.

LOCATION OF THE SHRINE :CLICK HERE

WILLIAM LAMBTON

Apart from the Mother Marry’s Shrine there is a statue of William Lambton unveiled in the year 2011.

The details of this statue are ..

Lieutenant Colonel William Lambton , FRS was a soldier, Surveyor and a geographer. He began a triangular survey in 1800 CE for 2 years., was latter called as Trigonometrical survey of India. His initial survey was to measure the length of a degree of an arc of the meridian, so as to establish the shape of the earth and support a larger scale trigonometrical survey across the width of peninsula of India from Madras. He continued northwards and died in Maharashtra. He was succeeded by his assistant George Everest, which was approved by Clive.

Madras base line began in the year 1802 CE and expected to complete in 5 years, but it took 70 years to complete the project till Mount Everest. It was told that the three points of the triangular are St Thomas Mount, Pallavaram and Race Course.

To be Continued…..

Sri Rajagopalaswamy Temple and Sri Dharmeswarar Temple at Manimangalam, Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu.

A Continuation to the previous post.

27^th August 2016

It was planned to cover 4 temples in Manimangalam and we could cover only the Perumal and Shiva Temples. The Manimangalam was called as Chathur vedhi mangalam during Chozha’s period. The place around the village are plain with paddy fields. Hope this was the place where the war between Pulikesi and Pallavas took place as described by Kalki.

SRI RAJAGOPALASWAMY TEMPLE, AT MANIMANGALAM

Moolavar : Sri Rajagopala swamy.

Thayar : Sri Sengamalavalli Thayar.

Some of the important features of this temple are…

There is a 4 pillar mandapam at the entrance. There is no Rajagopuram, and only an entrance arch with stucco images of Perumal. Balipeedam, Dwajasthambam are immediately after the entrance. The temple consists of sanctum, artha mandapam and Maha mandapam. The maha mandapam is constructed in front of artha mandapam with entrances from north side and south side. The moolavar vimanam is with out much stucco images. The special attraction of this temple is moolavar’s conch and the disc positions are interchanged.

Sri Sengamalavalli Thayar and Sri Andal Sannadhi are in the outer prakaram. There is also a 4 pillar mandapam in front of the thayar sannidhi.

HISTORY AND INSCRIPTIONS

The temple was constructed during Chozha period and the temple walls has many inscriptions. The temple was closed during our visit and could not the details of the inside temple.