The Bhoomi Pooja of the Goddess Sri Padmavathi Thayar temple at GN Chetty Road, Thyagaraya Nagar in Chennai took place on 13 February.
The land was donated by Yesteryear lead actress Kanchana, known as the Queen of the Seventies and an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara. The land had been under dispute, but after a long legal battle, Kanchana won the case and decided to give the land located in prime real-estate area worth ₹ 15 crores for the construction of the temple.
The Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) had wanted to build a temple dedicated to Padmavathi Thayar (consort of Lord Venkateswara) in Chennai for a long time. When actor Kanchana and her sister Girija Pandey found out about this, they decided to give the land worth situated in the heart of Chennai to the TTD.
On this auspicious occasion, Kanchi Sankaracharya Shri Vijayendra Saraswathi unveiled a stone plaque at the site and also handed over cows and calves to eight temples in Tamil Nadu under the ‘Gudiko Gomatha’ campaign in Tamil Nadu. The Kanchi Sankaracharya also praised the TTD for spearheading the propagation of the Hindu traditions by constructing more and more temples across the country. The seer said that building a temple dedicated to the Goddess of Wealth in Chennai will usher prosperity into the entire state.
The Kanchi seer also appealed to devotees to take Hindu Dharma to other places and conduct go-poojas regularly. As a prelude to the foundation stone laying function, a series of religious ceremonies like Viswaksena Aradhana, Ankurarpanam, etc were performed on February 10 and Panchasukta Homam was done on February 11 and 12. On the morning of February 13, the Kanchi seer performed Shankusthapana which included Poornahuti and installation of foundation pylon at the site.
The TTD has allocated ₹7 crore for the new temple. As per plans made available to the public, the temple will be built on half of the available land while the remaining land will be used for the construction of Mandap, Madapalli (Kitchen to prepare food for the deity), warehouse to keep Vahanas, etc.
In another positive development in Tamil Nadu, the state government has consented to allot 10 acres of land each on Chennai Rajiv Gandhi road and East Coast Road (ECR) to the TTD, where it plans to construct Sri Venkateswara Swamy Divyakshetram in Chennai city.
TTD will also soon launch Kalyanamasthu programme in Tamil Nadu and will perform Bhoomi Pooja for the construction of fifth TTD temple at Ulundurpet in Kallakurichi district, to be held on 22 February.
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