KALAKKAD, THIRUNELVELI, INDIA, July 7, 2011: The Sri Satya Vageeswarar temple has a wealth of inscriptions, sculptures, murals, music pillars and a towering rajagopuram with about 1,500 stucco figures. The temple has features that go back to the Chola period and so could be more than 800 years old.
For its upcoming kumbabishekam later this month, the temple has renovated the 135 ft tall, nine-tiered rajagopuram which teems with 1,500 stucco figures. They were made of ‘sudhai’ (lime mortar) which have suffered damage over time. On the inner walls of the rajagopuram’s nine storys there are about 200 beautiful murals, portraying scenes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharatha, Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam (Siva Leelas), Siva’s marriage to Parvati, episodes from the lives of the Tamil Nadu’s Saivite saints, Siva as Bhikshatana, Rati and Manmatha, Krishna Leelas, the wedding of Saivite saint, Sundarar and more.
According to T. Satyamurthy, former superintending archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, the murals are “an amazing art gallery of puranic themes.” The REACH Foundation, of which Dr. Satyamurthy is one of the founders, plans to restore the murals which have been vandalized.