A gold ‘Rishaba Vahanam' made at a cost of Rs. 90 lakh with over 3.5 kilograms of gold was installed at the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple here on Monday.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Meenakshi temple Karumuttu T. Kannan said that the temple was only the second one in the State after Rameswaram Temple to have such a vahanam. It has been made in keeping with the ancient traditions, he added. Meenakshi temple trustees Rukmani Palanivel Rajan, M. Balasubramanian and S. Rajaram, R. Padmanaban, Joint Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) Department, and Executive Officer, were present. Deputy Commissioner (Verification), HR and CE Department, S. Selvaraj, and Chellapandi, a gems specialist, supervised the construction.
After pujas were performed, the vahanam was taken on a procession in the four Masi Streets. The vahanam was constructed at the temple premises itself by a team of Government-approved temple architects who included R.D. Selvaraj, R.D. Thangadurai, R.D. Sethuraman and M. Manikandan. Weighing around half a tonne, the vahanam has a height and length of seven feet and breadth of 4.5 feet. While temple gold was used for the vahanam, the rest of the construction material was given by donors.
Published - February 08, 2011 04:46 pm IST
