சிவன் கோயில்

There is this Siva temple in our street in Mannargudi, built by our forefathers long time ago. It has always been in a dilapidated condition as far as I remember (past 30 years). It wasn't a poor temple originally. It was given lot of land which was supposed to generate sufficient revenue for its upkeep and the poojas. But slowly, the land was illegally transferred and sold to others by the lessees. The temple became poorer by the year and couldn't afford poojas. When I was a kid, the temple was in such a bad shape, several cobra families made it their home; ten feet cobras were common there, and kids were forbidden to go anywhere near the temple. In the recent past, people in our street were sponsoring small scale poojas on irregular intervals; however, upkeep of the premise was out of question. It is only because of the quality of the original construction, the temple did not fall down completely. Finally, now, some locals are taking the initiative to renovate the temple and planning to have the rededication ceremony in few months. Here are the pictures from the renovation work.