The 400-year-old Ammani Ammal Mutt was reportedly razed down and destroyed by the Tamil Nadu HR&CE department in Tiruvannamalai on 18th March 2023 while clearing encroachments on Mutt-owned land. This has caused a lot of shock and distress to the devotees and followers of Ammani Ammal in and around Tiruvannamalai.
Ammani Ammal belonging to the Chennasamudram area of Chengam near Tiruvannamalai built a Mutt in the 17th century near the Arunachaleshwarar Temple. She had been instrumental in building the North Gopuram (Tower) of the Arunachaleshwara temple and the North Gopuram is also known as Ammani Amman gopuram. She attained Jeeva Samadhi at the end of the 17th century and since then the Mutt has been taken care of by her disciples and other devotees.
However, over the past 30 years, since there was difficulty in finding people to help maintain the temple/Mutt, some people illegally encroached and occupied it.
To resolve this, in 1976, Hindu organizations and social activists approached the courts who ordered that the temple be handed over to the HR&CE department along with Arunachaleshwara temple management will take care of the temple and Mutt.
It was noted that Sankar, Vice President of BJP Tamil Nadu’s Spirituality & Temple Development Division allegedly encroached on the 3800 sqft area of the temple and built a house and a car shed.
To have this removed, the temple administration filed a case in court and three days ago, the court ordered that the encroachment must be removed and the Mutt must be protected. While demolishing the car shed and house, the Mutt building was also reportedly destroyed.
Hindu Munnani leaders, Ammani Amman Mutt devotees came to know of this only when 70% of the Mutt was demolished.
When asked of the temple administration as to why this happened, they said that the Mutt was demolished because it was damaged. Hindu Munnani leaders unconvinced by this reply sat on a Dharna on the half-demolished Mutt on the 19th of March 2023 morning. They raised slogans condemning the HR&CE department for destroying the 400-year-old Mutt which was in good condition and for violating the court order. The Tiruvannamalai Town Police managed to pacify them and later sent them away.
Later, Hindu Munnani shared a press release stating that “The management of this mutt was carried out under the terms of the trust of the original Mutt with the addition of the State Hindu Paramana Trust as an administrator. Sridhar, who was the head of the Tiruvannamalai Nagar Council, tried to occupy the Mutt. Hindu Munnani prevented this move. State Minister for Public Works, EV Velu’s men once tried to encroach on the Mutt, but after the intervention of Shri Rama Gopal of Hindu Munnani, he gave up on taking over the Mutt as advised by present Chief Minister Stalin.”
While Hindu Munnani stated that they welcomed the move to remove the encroachment, it condemned the razing down of the ancient Mutt.
They also called upon Durga Stalin, wife of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, who is a devotee of Arunachaleswarar, the presiding deity of Tiruvannamalai temple, to come forward to protect the Ammani Ammal Mutt.
(With inputs from Dinamalar)
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