Karunanidhi statue diplomacy
DMK WOOING BJP THROUGH MODI ?
By R Rajagopalan
NEW DELHI: Is DMK getting disenchanted with the Congress-led UPA government to explore its fortunes by tying up with the Bhartiya Janata Party, taking help of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi ?
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's gesture to Modi by sending a high-level team led by Education and Archaeological Thennarasu to meet Modi in Gandhinagar on Monday has created a flutter in the Congress circles here.
The delegation is reported to have conveyed Karunanidhi's greetings to Modi and invited him to join the millennium celebrations of the famous Brahadeeswarar Mandir of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu slated on September 25 and 26.
It also sought Modi's help in procuring and restoring in the temple a bronze statue of the great Chola emperor Rajaraj I who built the temple and died in 1014 AD as also a statue of his queen Lokamadevi. The statues are presently showcased in Ahmedabad in the privately managed Sarabhai Foundation-run Calico Museum of Textiles.
Karunanidhi has already written to Modi seeking his help in bringing back home the 11th century statues that were acquired back in 1940s by Sarabhai Foundation trustee Gautam Sarabhai.
According to historian Kudavayil Balasubramaniyan, an inscription found in a "mandapam" located on the western side of the temple says that Thennavan Moovendha Velan, who was appointed the chief administrative officer of the temple by Rajaraja Chola, had made statues of the emperor and his queen Lokamadevi. The historian says the descriptions and measurements of the statues mentioned in the inscription match those kept in the Ahmedabad museum.
In a book on the Indian Bronze Masterpieces published by the Festival of India in 1988, former
Tamil Nadu Archaeology director and noted archaeologist Dr R Nagaswamy claimed that two other bronze portraits in the Ahmedabad museum also relate to the same Chola kingdom. One is of the royal personage standing with flowers in hand and other is of the king, both understandably belonging to the age of Rajaraja Chola circa 1010 AD.
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