An Ancient Janardhana Temple Collapsed In Heavy Downpours

The downpours of Sunday Night have collapsed the ancient Vishnu temple at Punchavayal near Panamaran in Wayanad. The part of the ancient temple Gopuram has been damaged and in this incident it is suspected some ancient and precious sculptors on the walls of the temple and on the pillars are destroyed.

In Lok Sabha in 2009, The then Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V.Narayanasamy, then in charge of the Culture Ministry has listed Vishnu Temple at Punchavayal and Janardhana and other 25 monuments in the country to be declared as national monuments, but even after these long years, the government is yet to take decision to protect or conserve them.

M.R. Raghava Varier, the historian who is associated with studies of sculptures, told The Hindu, that “It’s an unfortunage incident and this shows the ineptitude of our Archaeology Department”. 

The temples were built during the reign of the Hoysala or the Vijayanagara dynasties from 12^th to 14^th centuries and the style of architecture, sculptures and script on the wall of the Janardhana temple of such type is mentioned on old Kannad script

According to Dr. Varier, the huge stone pillars of the temple were brought from Karnataka. It was confirmed by the inscription on a copper plate in a Jain Temple nearby Varadoor.

The temples were beautifully built with Jain style with sanctum sanctorum, Navarangam a place of sub deities, Kalasa Mandapam and Gopuram.

 According to the superintending archaeologists, Archaeological Survey of India, Thrissur circe, T. Sreelakshmi said, the procedure to declared temples as a national monuments was also most over and it would have just taken 10 more days to declare.