Country India Primary deity Sivagurunathar(Shiva) District Thanjavur | State Tamil Nadu Architectural styles Dravidian architecture Architectural style Dravidian architecture | |
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Location Sivapuram, Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India | ||
The Sivagurunathaswamy temple one of the Padal petra stalam, Hindu God, Shiva temples revered by 7th Century poets mentioned in the Tevaram. It is located in Sivapuram near Kumbakonam.
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Location
Sivapuram is located 5 kilometres south-east of the town and taluk headquarters of Kumbakonam on the way to Thiruvarur.
The temple
Sivapuram is famous for the Sivagurunathaswamy temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. The deity is also referred to as Sivagurunathar or Sivapuranathar. The temple is one of the 67 sthalams or holy abodes mentioned in the Thevaram located in the ancient Chola kingdom. According to different legends, Vishnu, Brahma and Kubera had worshipped Shiva here at different times. As Kubera is believed to have worshipped here, the village is also known as Kuberapuri.
The present temple in the village dates back to the Later Chola period and covers an area of 1.3 acres (5,300 m2). The principal shrine is dedicated to Lord Shiva who is worshipped by a sculpted figurine of Vishnu in his Varaha Avatar. There are also shrines dedicated to Subrahmanya, Gajalakshmi and Bhairava.
It is also believed that a shivalingam lies buried at this spot. This shivalingam was worshipped by the Saivite saint Tirugnanasambandar.
Idol theft
In 1951, idols of Lord Nataraja, Tirugnanasambandar, Somaskandar, Pillaiyar and two other goddesses from the Later Chola period were recovered by a farmer Annamuthu Padaiyachi in his field. The farmer alerted government authorities about his find and handed the idols to the authorities. On October 10, 1953, the District Collector of Thanjavur donated the idols to the Sivagurunathasamy temple to be installed along with other deities. On receipt of the idols, the temple authorities commissioned sculptor Ramasamy Sthapathi to repair the idols. The idols were subsequently returned to the temple after the repairs had been carried out.
Some time later, Dr. Douglas Barrett of the British Museum, who had visited the temple in 1961, wrote in his book South Indian Bronze that the Nataraja idol in the Sivagurunathaswamy temple was fake and that the original idols were in the possession of a private art collector in the United States of America. This claim prompted the Government of Tamil Nadu to send S. Krishnaraj, Deputy Inspector General, CID, to the USA to investigate the claim. As the outcome of Krishnaraj's investigations, a case was registered at the Natchiyar Koil police station.
The case was entrusted to the Crime Branch CID and investigations were carried out with the assistance of the Scotland Yard. It was found that in 1956, one Thilakar of Kuthalam and his brother Doss had persuaded Ramasamy Sthapathi to lend the six idols to them in return for six fake ones which Ramasamy had returned to the temple authorities. The idols were purchased by a private art collector Lance Dane of Bombay who kept the idols in his possession for a decade before selling them to Bomman Beharan. The idols eventually made their way to the United States where in 1973 they were purchased by Norton Simon Foundation for $900,000.
The Indian police arrested Lance Dane, Thilakar, Doss and Ramasamy Sthapathy. Meanwhile, the Scotland Yard found out that the actual Nataraja idol was in the possession of Anna Plowden of England. The Government of India filed a civil suit against the Norton Simon Foundation. The Tamil Nadu government approached the Government of the United States of America through India's Ministry of External Affairs. The Nataraja idol was handed over to Dr. M. S. Nagaraja Rao, the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1987 and is currently present in a safe-vault in the Kapaleeswara temple, Mylapore, Chennai.