Call to protect Pandya-period temple in Ramnad district

MADURAI: Ramanathapuram Archaeological Research Foundation recently found inscriptions relating to the Pandya era in the Melakodumalur Kumuleeswarar Shiva temple near Kamuthi in Ramanathapuram district.

Apart from inscriptions, there were also sculptures and architectural features that support the history of the Pandya and Vijayanagara kingdoms, and V Rajaguru, president of the foundation called for the protection of the historic temple.

“It has lost its past glory and is now in a dilapidated condition,” he said. Recalling the ancient glory, Rajaguru, said in 1907 the Archaeological Survey of India recorded two inscriptions from the Kumuleeswarar temple at Melakodumalur.

Though a small temple built using granite during the reign of Maravarman Sundara Pandyan I, it has a beautiful ‘devakosta’, ‘vriddhaspuditham’, and other structures with a sanctum sanctorum and ‘ardhamandapa’.

At the entrance, the image of Gajalakshmi is carved as a relief sculpture. There is a Linga with a square-shaped ‘avudai’ of the Pandyas. Melakodumalur, which is referred to as Uthamacholanallur in Chola inscriptions of the 11th century AD, was renamed as Uthamapandiyanallur during the Pandya rule in the 13th century AD. An inscription dated 1534 AD, registers the gift by the Vijayanagara King Immadi Achutha Devamaharaya, of the village Melakodumalur for meeting the expenses of worship in the temple of Sethu Madhava Perumaļ and of repairs to the temple of Ramanatha, both situated at Dhanushkodi. Half the village was said to have been granted as ‘Thiruvidaiyattam’ and the other half as ‘Devadhana’.

This provides the evidence of the existence of two temples in the ruined Dhanushkodi. The temple, which is so rich in inscriptions and architecture, has now turned into a dumping ground for garbage. The ‘devakostas’ on the outside seemed to have been destroyed. Moreover, there is no ‘vimana’ on the top of the ‘prasthara’.

Citing these findings, he sought the government to repair and protect this age-old temple in Ramanathapuram district.