Hindi, English dominate Kancheepuram temples as Tamil fades from boards

At the time when the historic significance of Tamil language is being widely discussed especially after the recent excavations at Keezhadi, Hindi and English have replaced Tamil at the major temples in Kancheepuram.

The capital of the Pallava dynasty, Kancheepuram is described in ancient literature as the ‘land of 1000 temples’, earning itthe sobriquet ‘temple town’. Along with Madurai, this is one of the few ancient towns that promoted Tamil literature.

In the recent days, however, Tamil has lost its sheen to other languages in Kancheepuram, with the major temples here having replaced it with Hindi and English. In many of the temples, the instructions given to devotees are only inHindi and English. There are also a couple of temples where the boards are only in Telugu. At all thesetemples, Tamil is not to be seen on the signboards.

One of the most striking examples of Hindi overshadowing Tamil is at the Kanchi Kamakchi Amman temple, where its history is put up only in Hindi on 34 marble tablets installed on the temple walls. This has left quite a few devotees irked, as they are unable to read it to learn the history.

Sunai Raju, a software engineer hailing from Tambaram now working in Canada, told DT Next, “I recently visited several temples in Kancheepuram and was very upset after seeing instruction boards and stone tablets in Hindi. Tamil has been completely neglected by the temple administrations,” he said.

To those like him, the instruction boards and stone tablets that are exclusively in Hindi were a clear case of how devotees from Tamil Nadu were being neglected by the administration. “It is sad how the State government allows Tamil to be overshadowed by other languages in temples within Tamil Nadu,” Raju said, adding that Tamil language would be completely removed from the temples across the State if this continued.

Similar is the case at Varadharaja Perumal temple, where boards were found in other languages in several areas. Above the counter where tickets to go near the sanctum sanctorum of Lord Varadharaja Perumal in Lizard Avatar, there is a board, only in English, that reads: “If touched all the sins and evils will be washed away.”

At Ekambaranathar temple, the board seeking donation is written only in English. “It shows temple management is interested in collecting donations only from those outside the State. But people visiting the temple are mostly downtrodden people,” said Dhanasekaran, a Kancheepuram-based trader.

At another temple here, the board has Telugu – devotees from Tamil Nadu are clueless as to what it says. Another temple has its brief history written in English and Hindi.

Commenting on this, Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi leader T Velmurugan put the blame on the ruling AIADMK government, charging that the boards were a proof about the chaotic governance in the State. “I strongly condemn the State government for putting up boards in Hindi and English; it should put up the boards in Tamil wherever necessary,” he demanded.

When asked about the boards, N Thyagarajan, Executive Officer of both Kamatchi Amman and Varadharaja Perumal temples, said, “The boards were placed in Hindi and English because a large number of devotees are from other States. As the issue has been raised, we will take action to put up boards in Tamil, too,” he said.

A senior official from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department said on request of anonymity: “No specific instruction has been given by HR&CE department to the officials in Kancheepuram. They might have placed the boards based on local demands.”