Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu stressed on the importance of preserving antiquities at the release of the book ‘Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam: Preserving antiquity for posterity’ published by the Indian Culture and Heritage Trust.
The first copy was released by Venkaiah Naidu in the presence of Governor Banwarilal Purohit. The Srirangam temple is a Vaishnava temple, spread over 156 acres with 21 towers and is the only temple to have seven concentric enclosures. The project of restoring the temple was done in 16 months.
Following the restoration work, it received the UNESCO award for Cultural Heritage Conservation in the Asia Pacific region. Venkaiah Naidu said, “It is noble work done in an exemplary timely manner in bringing back ancient heritage culture and restoring in its original place. The project was Initiated by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. The conservation is remarkable that too of a 500-year-old temple to its original shape. In the passage of time, this great architectural resplendence lost its glory to neglect and misuse. Stagnant water and encroachment had changed the structure and landscape of the temple. It is much more difficult to preserve treasure than acquire it. We should come out of the mindset of not preserving our heritage and culture.”
“It is not left to government alone, people, the believers are equally responsible to preserve the heritage given to us by for fathers. Temples, mutts, other religious places of worship should be preserved, conserved, restored and promoted. Sadly, we are not paying attention to it.”
Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, Government of Tamilnadu, Sevvoor S Ramachandran and Minister for Tamil Culture and development, Pandiarajan and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar were also present on the occasion.