Hyderabad, May 01: The project to gold plate the walls of the Ananda Nilayam at Tirumala has run into further trouble with 14 retired civil servants, all of whom had once served stints in the most revered temple, writing to Governor E S L Narasimhan and Chief Minister K Rosaiah to advise the temple board not to pursue the project.
The project, powered by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Chairman D K Audikesavulu Naidu, has been stayed by the High Court , which is hearing a petition challenging it.
The signatories to the letter, submitted to Narasimhan and Rosaiah on Friday, include former chief secretary Shravan Kumar, former Union secretaries R Rajamani, C S Rao and G P Rao, former AP special chief secretaries, M Gopalakrishna, V K Srinivasan and C Ramachandran Gayatri, and former TTD executive officers K Umapathy and M V S Prasad.
The civil servants wanted the entire idea abandoned since it would be in conflict with Agama Shastras, and violate the spirit of reverence devotees feel towards the temple.
The project would require driving bolts into the walls bearing ancient inscriptions, and damage the temple’s heritage.
The copper plates would also prevent detection of any future damage, they said. At any rate, the accepted tradition in temples is to gold plate the vimana — which has already been done. Gilding the walls of the temple would only serve to distract the devotees’ attention from the sanctum sanctorum itself.
‘‘As each stone in the temple has prachinata (ancient), pavitrata (sanctity) and parampara (legacy), covering these stones with gold plates will not be in accordance with people’s sentiments and faith,’’ the letter said.
They said the idea may have been influenced by the small golden temple at Vellore. Even if the TTD had thought that gold plating would attract visitors, the reasoning is flawed since the pilgrim rush to Tirumala is about 70,000 per day and the TTD is barely able to manage it.
They expressed the possibility of undesirable consequences if gold plating was done. Devotees would attempt to touch the gold plates and to prevent this, maintenance staff would be required.
Then, anti-social elements may try to knock away parts of the plates. Though the TTD board wanted to take expert opinion before going ahead with the project, it appears no wide consultations have taken place.
They said that sentiments of generations of devotees, their faith, beliefs, religious values and history should be respected and the temple should be preserved in its pristine glory.
They pointed out that those devotees who had contributed gold for gold plating project could be asked if the contribution could be used for other charitable cause or for the adornment of the Lord. If they do not wish so, the gold could go back to them.
—Agencies