Sad Condition of South Indian Temples

[simpliCITY]

Temples without colour looks marvelous. While painting on a rock carved goupuram make difficulties to understand the original material used for the art. plastic, wood, plaster of paris, concrete, mud all looks similiar with those cheap paints.

just think about great wall of china, the Pyramids, Machupichu, stone henge, Colloseum -all painted with multi colour cheap CHUNA!! hehehe

[Marathaman]

Trivandrum:

Ugly cement structure attached to gopuram, and gopuram itself looks like it urgently needs restoration.
image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallflinn/4288603779/

Plants growing everywhere, rooftiles need to be replaced, the walls look damp and leaky....
image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anujnair/388938951/

[India101]

The whole area needs restoration.

[krmpradeep]

Here is a photo that I took a couple of years back. The vertical faces of all the stairs were colored with the notorious red/white scheme. Also, you can clearly see yellowish limestone colors painted across the structures on the opposite side of the water tank. As if that weren't enough, the temple's management managed to throw in some potted plants and promptly forgot to maintain them. They look like trees in the photo!

I hope things have changed now. Does anyone have a recent pic of this marvelous temple?

[Marathaman]

^They've made it even worse. I didn't think that was possible, but the temple management have outdone themselves.

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/indiant...26253/sizes/o/

[Marathaman]

A 16th century (?) Temple inside Kavaledurga fort, Karnataka

http://picasaweb.google.com/hegdemca5/Kavaledurga#

[VaastuShastra]

That looks like it could be very beautiful if it were renovated.

[Marathaman]

Thiruchendur (Bright pink colour, concrete extension...MY GOD)

[skganji]

Originally Posted by Marathaman

Thiruchendur (Bright pink colour, concrete extension...MY GOD)

There is no doubt that the atheist and the corrupted and insane politician Karunanidhi is the reason behind the sad condition of temples in Tamil Nadu. TamilNadu has a rich culture and heritage and unfortunately bad rulers in recent years who had no respect or pride in their heritage. Shame on this kind of rulers.

[Marathaman]

^Please don't bring your politics to this thread. Thanks.

[Fusionist]

Originally Posted by Marathaman

Thiruchendur (Bright pink colour, concrete extension...MY GOD)

this is one really messed up temple

[skganji]

Originally Posted by Marathaman

^Please don't bring your politics to this thread. Thanks.

Well , I don't want to bring politics into this thread however, the truth is that these dirty corrupted atheistic politicians are ruining the rich and cultural heritage of TamilNadu. Why would anybody allow such nasty work on all these temples without even considering the Aesthetics involved it ?. There are numerous occassion in recent History of TamilNadu where this happened. What right did these nasty politicians have to destroy these temples ?. I don't what is the ASI of TamilNadu doing . Did it even protest this kind of shady renovation and extension of the Mandaps or is simply accepted the dictat of the politicians ?.

[Arasu]

Originally Posted by skganji

Well , I don't want to bring politics into this thread however, the truth is that these dirty corrupted atheistic politicians are ruining the rich and cultural heritage of TamilNadu. Why would anybody allow such nasty work on all these temples without even considering the Aesthetics involved it ?. There are numerous occassion in recent History of TamilNadu where this happened. What right did these nasty politicians have to destroy these temples ?. I don't what is the ASI of TamilNadu doing . Did it even protest this kind of shady renovation and extension of the Mandaps or is simply accepted the dictat of the politicians ?.

I am sure you didn't certainly imply that some nasty fundamentalist politicians have the rights to demolish masjids while ASI of India and the central cabinet watched over them.

I thought I will clarify before some crazy chaps misunderstood you and entertained some weird ideas.

[skganji]

Originally Posted by Arasu

I am sure you didn't certainly imply that some nasty fundamentalist politicians have the rights to demolish masjids while ASI of India and the central cabinet watched over them.

I thought I will clarify before some crazy chaps misunderstood you and entertained some weird ideas.

Are you talking about Babri Masjid ? . I don't want to go into this topic. Let the so called Justice system of India decide this matter.

[Marathaman]

Originally Posted by skganji

Well , I don't want to bring politics into this thread however, the truth is that these dirty corrupted atheistic politicians are ruining the rich and cultural heritage of TamilNadu. Why would anybody allow such nasty work on all these temples without even considering the Aesthetics involved it ?. There are numerous occassion in recent History of TamilNadu where this happened. What right did these nasty politicians have to destroy these temples ?. I don't what is the ASI of TamilNadu doing . Did it even protest this kind of shady renovation and extension of the Mandaps or is simply accepted the dictat of the politicians ?.

I'm pretty sure that the 'nastiness' and atheism of TN politicians have very little to do with the condition of temples in the state. The condition of temples in BJP ruled states like Himachal Pradesh or Karnataka isn't exactly better. Its more a matter of educating the organizations that run these temples about the importance of staying true to the original architecture of the temple while renovating/expanding them.

Also, a lot of these temples are run by government organizations, and so they are treated poorly like any other government building. Indicates the condition of government services and organizations in the country, which is largely independent of political affiliation.

[Marathaman]

Draksharama, Andhra Pradesh:

http://picasaweb.google.com/chandras3d/VizagMar08#

[skganji]

I just want to clarify some thing. Negligence is different and delibarate vandalism of these temples is different. What is happening to lot of temples in India is of second category. In TamilNadu , recent incidents to some temples clearly indicate that this is a mindless attempt to ruin these structures. I don't remember that temple,but I vaguely remember it was the nataraja temple in Madurai or somewhere they dismantled a thousand year old temple and they are clueless on how to assemble it back.

[Marathaman]

^Please come up with something specific. Vague references to "Nataraja temple in Madurai" is not helping.

[skganji]

It is a Mandap renovation at Kanchipuram.

“What is happening now is total destruction. They are not dismantling it. They are smashing it with a bulldozer".

http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/200...temple-mantap/

[Marathaman]

^The mandapam at Kanchipuram that was demolished was infact discussed here. You can probably search a bit and find the original news article in this forum, but there's no evidence to suggest that Karunanidhi himself had anything to do with it. I fail to see what political purpose it would serve. Besides, that's a (pretty biased) blog.