First of its kind, Ayyanar stone sculpture unearthed in Vellore

VELLORE: An Ayyanar stone sculpture, the first of its kind in Vellore, was discovered at Thandalai Krishnapuram (TK Puram) on Thursday.

According to numismatist, philatelist and history buff C Tamilvanan, “the sculpture is the first of its kind to be discovered in Vellore. A person from the village who was clearing land to create a pathway using a JCB stumbled on it and as he follows me on Facebook, he informed me of the find.”

When Tamilvanan went to the site expecting to find a hero stone, he found that it was in fact a sculpture of Ayyanar, the guardian deity usually found at the entrance of villages in rural areas.

“To the best of my knowledge this is the first time that an Ayyanar statue has been discovered in the Vellore region,” he told DT Next.

With the help of two locals, V Ilayaraja and J Gokulraj and assisted by villagers it took nearly one and a half hours to clean the statue.

Villagers who saw the real contours of the statue started performing poojas and said they would build a temple for it.

Tamilvanan said, “the statue belongs to the late Pallava period of the 8th Century AD. Ayyanar statues and temples can be found outside villages in rural TN. Ayyanar might have originated from a former warrior or commander and over time had evolved into a guardian deity with some even worshipping him as their family deity.

On further action, Tamilvanan said, “it is up to the villagers to decide what they want to do with it as the sculpture was found in their area.”