TAMIL NADU, INDIA, August 8, 2011 (Times of India): Mahalakshmi Subramanian has adopted the personal mission of renovating kovils (temples) across Tamil Nadu.
Mahalakshmi is a devotee of Kanchi Paramacharya, who started the Kachimuthur Trust 35 years ago to renovate historic temples in the state. In support of that mission, she went from house to house collecting funds. Following Paramacharya’s mahasamadhi, she has made this mission her own, working through the Mahalakshmi Charitable Trust, which she and her family set up for the purpose.
“There are 32,000 temples in Tamil Nadu that are in a state of disrepair,” says Mahalakshmi, who works as a librarian in a Chennai school. “I visited my hometown and was horrified to see an ancient temple in ruins. An 18-ft statue of Vanamutti Perumal (Vishnu) stood supported just by the root of a fig tree. That became my first project.”
With the support of local people and the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, Mahalakshmi’s trust has revived 63 temples and consecrated 23. An extension of the trust operates in the US “to mobilize funds from abroad.”