![The HR & CE Department has begun renovations at the Sri Payaraneeswarar Temple in Udayarpalayam in Ariyalur district The HR & CE Department has begun renovations at the Sri Payaraneeswarar Temple in Udayarpalayam in Ariyalur district](https://www.thehindu.com/theme/images/th-online/1x1_spacer.png)
The HR & CE Division has begun renovations on the Sri Payaraneeswarar Temple in Udayarpalayam in Ariyalur district
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association
The Sri Payaraneeswarar Temple in Udayarpalayam in Ariyalur district, the place the late sage, Sankaracharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamigal stayed usually and would take a ship to wish on the Neerali Mandapam within the midst of the temple tank, is being renovated.
Although the temple belonged to the descendants of the Udayarpalayam Zamin, who nonetheless stay in a stupendous however dilapidated palace on the premises, the administration of the temple is now underneath the management of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Non secular and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Division.
HR&CE officers say the renovation will price ₹2 crore. The close by Varadaraja Perumal temple, can be being renovated, at a price of ₹1 crore. “We are trying to get sponsors to renovate the temple tank, known as Gandeepa Theertham. Kumbabishekam would be performed only after completing renovation of the tank,” officers defined. They mentioned the temple owns round 120 acres, and added that the appointment of a particular govt officer was essential to handle the properties and preserve the temple.
![Sankaracharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamigal would take a boat to pray at the Neerali Mandapam in the midst of the temple tank, of the Sri Payaraneeswarar Temple in Udayarpalayam Sankaracharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamigal would take a boat to pray at the Neerali Mandapam in the midst of the temple tank, of the Sri Payaraneeswarar Temple in Udayarpalayam](https://th-i.thgim.com/public/incoming/j0drq2/article67524435.ece/alternates/FREE_1200/1992112001900102-BAN-CT.jpg)
Sankaracharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamigal would take a ship to wish on the Neerali Mandapam within the midst of the temple tank, of the Sri Payaraneeswarar Temple in Udayarpalayam
| Picture Credit score:
The Hindu Archives
F.R. Hemingway, who was an Indian Civil Service officer throughout Colonial occasions, and was additionally the creator of the Trichinopoly Gazette, the presiding deity of the temple known as “Payarani Mahalingam and is supposed to have turned some pepper into green-gram in order to oblige a merchant devotee of his, who wished to evade paying toll on the more expensive produce.”
Mr. Hemingway wrote that the founding father of the Udayarpalayam household was a petty poligar (holder of a small kingdom) of Conjeevaram (now Kancheepuram), named Rangappa Udaiyar, who was identified by the title Kachi Yuva Rangappa Kalakka Tola Udaiyar. Because the title Kachi suggests, the household was initially from Kancheepuram, the capital of Pallavas, they usually retained an in depth hyperlink with the Kanchi Mutt as a result of the idols of Bangaru Kamakshi and Varadharaja Perumal of Kancheepuram, Nataraja of Chidambaram and the idols of Srimushnam had been dropped at Udayarpalayam after they confronted invasions from Muslim rulers and different rival kings in 1700.
![A view of the Neerali Mandapam in the midst of the temple tank A view of the Neerali Mandapam in the midst of the temple tank](https://th-i.thgim.com/public/incoming/194g26/article67524436.ece/alternates/FREE_1200/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-11-11%20at%203.31.04%20PM%20%281%29.jpeg)
A view of the Neerali Mandapam within the midst of the temple tank
| Picture Credit score:
B Kolappan
Subsequently, the idols had been taken again to their respective cities, and the service provided by the Zamins in defending the idols cemented the ties between Udayarpalayam and the Kanchi Mutt.
Sanakaracharya visited Udayarpalayam in 1926, and was given a rousing reception. Previous images within the possession of Ok.C.C. Rajkumar Shanmugam, one of many scions of the Zamin, reveals the Sankaracharya crusing in a ship to Neerali mandapam to carry out the Chandramouleshwara pooja. The boat he used for this journey remains to be on the temple.
R. Kalaikovan, founding father of the Dr. M. Rajamanikkanar Centre for Historic Analysis, Thiruchirapalli., mentioned however for the pillars of the mandapas, the whole construction of the Payaraneeswaram temple is constructed of brick and stucco, and was in all probability constructed between 300 and 400 years in the past. “It has two gopurams. The first entrance facing South is a seven-tier gopuram studded with stucco figures of various deities and erotic scenes. The second gopuram, faces the east from the entrance of the main temple,” he has written in his discipline notes after visiting the temple. The outer prakara, on its east, has a multi-pillared mandapam that results in the tank, Gandeepa Theertha