Manavur Thirunandeeswarar Temple

With the Divine Blessings of the Almighty God Shri Nandeeswarar, right from day one we started enlisting our members and co-workers at our workspot, besides our relatives. Detailed planning was undertaken to source the men and materials and to our pleasant surprise,  support  started pouring in from different quarters.  Only the previous week, we were a bit sceptical if we could finish the job in a single day.  Our coordinator Shri Ramachandran was worried that without Divine Help, we may not be able to finish, since the area to be covered is around 14000 sq. ft.

Hearing our plight,  more than 20 seasoned volunteers from Shri  Adalarasan's  Thirukovil Uzhavarappani Mandram came to our rescue.  As the place is a remote village, we had accumulated the required  cement paint mixture, brushes and empty buckets and carried them in a van to Manavur on the previous evening itself.  A group of 30 people had reached Manavur on Saturday(25.02.202) and stayed there overnight.  This group started the work early in the morning by  05.30am , while other volunteers reached on 26.02.2012 morning. 

Notable among our participants is Shri Jayaraman,  a physically challenged devotee without both the legs.  His fervor and devotion in Uzhavarappani was admired by every one.( His photo appears in the earlier post). Women devotees were also present  in large numbers and engaged themselves in cleaning the various Sannadhis.  In all nearly eighty volunteers participated in the white washing.  Breakfast and lunch for the volunteers was arranged from the  Appar Madam at the nearby Thiruvalangadu with the notable help of Shri Adalarasan's group.

By late afternoon, all the outer walls were given two coats of white washing, besides the two smaller shrines within the temple compound.  Thereafter a few members took upon the work of writing  சிவ சிவ on the inner walls using luminous paint.  Everybody returned home that night with a sense of satisfaction for having contributed his/her mite in the renovation of this great Temple.

Before & After
Just a small comparison

White washing the outer walls

The damaged old Kodimaram and
the new one ready for installation

 At the end of the day Jayaraman cleans all the brushes & buckets and keeps them ready for the next Uzhavarappani.

One of our volunteers in the process of painting the image of Lord Nandeeswarar on the Western side inner wall.  

After reviewing the various snaps taken, some of us felt that a few more finishing touches with terracota colour may add more beauty to the walls.  Accordingly, it has been planned to visit Manavur Temple again on 18.03.2012 to add a touch of colour, besides witnessing the installation of the new  KODIMARAM.  More about it in another post.