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Re: Sri Thondaradipodi Alwar

From the Bhakti List Archives

selvaraj viswanathan • January 13, 2002 


Poojya Swamin,

I had just returned from Thiru Mandangudy - the Thiru
Avatara Divya Desam of Sri Thondaradipodi Alwar. The
Alwar's Thiru Avatara Nakshathira Mahotsavam was held
on 11th Jan 2002 Friday.

A brief intro about the temple:

The temple is at Thiru Mandangudy, about 13 KMs from
Kumbakonam, about 8 KMs from Swamimalai. It is also
near two other divya desams, Thiru Adanur and Thiru
Pullamboothankudy.

The Divya Desam temple is at the far end of the
village, almost behind the massive Thiru Arooran Sugar
Factory. There is not one brahmin family at the
village and the Agraharam is in ruins. There is one
family living in a hut near the temple, earlier
belonging to brahmin family now gone usunder; the keys
are kept with them. The villagers do not have any
interest in the temple, but one would find them in
time at the time of distribution. Many of the
villagers have taken temple lands on lease, but have
not paid the same for ages. A few have encroached the
property; one lady has blocked the way to the
pushkarini and it is with great difficulty, we have
been able to make a free passage to the tank. Now the
state government has put one retired ex-service man
for security pruposes and is paying him a modest
salary.

Samprokshnam was earlier perfomed in 1960; in late
eighties and early nineties, people like the
undersigned have shed tears at the sight of the
temple, which was near to debilitation. With great
effort, the two hereditary trustees were made to see
eye to eye, and jeernortharanam was started in
September 1994. Sri Dr Sampath of choolaimedu, Madras
was the guiding spirit of the renovation and with the
blessings of Sri Krishna Premi Swamy and the finanical
support of Dr Sampath in a major way  and other donors
the Samprokshanam was completed in September 1996.
Still some work was left undone due to lack of
finances. The details are given in the web site
"www.angelfire.com/80s/tpa". 

Archakar is coming from Papanasam which is about 8 KMs
away and is being paid by the Sabha at Rs 500 per
month. By pooling our reserves, we are able to conduct
nithya arathanas and two utsavams - Alwar Thiru
Avathara Utsavam combined with Hanumath Jayanthi,
Thiru Pavithrotsavam for 4 days.

Wiring of the temple premises, completion of pending
civil work, construction of archakar quarteres about
250 SFT to makt the archakar stay there etc are being
planned. Thiru Arooran Sugars which helped fund the
raja gopuram in 1996 for about Rs 70000/- have now
refused saying their industry is not doing well. There
is Sri Krishna Premi Swamy's poorna blessings for the
renovation now being undertaken.

The renovation is being handled by Sri Thondaradipodi
Alwar Bhaktha Sabha which is being chaired by Sri SR
Sridhar, a young trustee and a banker, who has spent
almost Rs 1.5 lakhs of hos own money for the temple,
and is very dedicated. For this purpose he has taken a
transfer to Kumbakonam and is away from his family
which is in Madras.

We seek the support of the Bhakthi group in the
renovation of the Alwar's avatara divya desam.

Adiyen, Sri Vaishnava Dasan Selva Narana Ramanujan.

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