On 26 November 2022, a team from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department conducted a survey to restore the temple hall in Chaturangapattinam, which had reportedly been converted into a place of Islamic worship.
Malaimandala Perumal Temple, under the control of HR&CE, is located in Chaturangapatnam area next to Kalpakkam in Chengalpattu district. It has 1.20 acre land with Uriyadi mandapams to its east.
The temple and its hall with swings and Uriyadi mandapams are believed to have been built during the reign of the Vijayanagara Empire. For a long time, this temple hosted the Uriyadi festival. However, the temple and its hall with swings and Uriyadi were not maintained for more than 50 years. The present employees of the temple are not even aware of the existence of such a place.
In this scenario, a group of Muslims have been visiting the location on a regular basis for the past few years. As a result, local residents entered the temple hall by clearing the bushes in the way and discovered that the temple complex had been converted into an Islamic place of worship. Residents later informed HR&CE officials of the situation and urged them to recover the temple complex.
On Saturday, Sridharan, the former Director of the Archeology Department, Temple Executive Officer Sakthivel, and other members of the HR&CE Department Reconstruction Advisory Committee conducted an investigation.
Sridharan, who saw Hindu religious idols in the mandapams, including Yoga Narasimhar in Vijayanagara period design, said he would prepare a report on the matter and request the Tahsildhar to recover the temple immediately.
(With inputs from Dinamalar)
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