Temple of love in Tamil Nadu

 
A modest temple being built for Lord Krishna in Tamil Nadu, as the god who “remains evergreen in the hearts of his devotees,” seeks to deify romantic love even for the poor in a divine setting, by reconfiguring the great teacher of the “Bhagavat Gita” as “Valentine’s Sri Krishna.”

“While modern popular culture goes wild on February 14 every year, celebrating the much-revered ancient Roman priest St Valentine as the ‘patron of lovers’ world over, why not honour our Lord Krishna as Valentine’s Sri Krishna, whose origin is much earlier than that of St Valentine,” asks R Jaganaath,  the man behind this initiative. Jaganaath is a Bangalore-born businessman now settled in Chennai.

Whether it is the “Puranic Gopis,” Tamil poetess Aandal or Meera’s divine love for Lord Krishna, the Valentine metaphor applies even more appropriately to the latter, Jaganaath told Deccan Herald here. Hence, this idea dawned on him to build what he calls a “Valentine’s Sri Krishna Temple.”

 “Krishna’s love is eternal and unlimited,” he says.

The temple is being built in the ancient town of Sholingur in Vellore district, 110 km from Chennai, home of the famous Vijayanagara period hill temple dedicated to Lord Yoga Narasimha.

A trust instituted for building the temple has allocated a modest outlay of Rs 1.60 lakh. But for him the concept is more important.

To be called “Yadavapuri,”  at the foot hills of the Sholingur Temple, which incidentally draws a large number of pilgrims from Karnataka also, the statue of the presiding deity, Radha and Krishna with a cow in the backdrop and modelled on the statue in Mathura, is being carved using white marble in Jaipur for the purpose.

The 12-foot high temple itself is being constructed by “Sthapathis” from Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu.

“We hope this new temple will be an added attraction to pilgrims thronging Sholingur,” says Jaganaath. The “Mahasamprokshanam” (consecration) of  “Valentine’s Sri Krishna” is slated for April 2010.