GUNTUR: After long deliberations and discussions, the villagers of Modukuru have consented not to go for the reconstruction of historic Sri Veerabhadra Swamy temple.
The villagers have also agreed to take support from the technical teams from Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach). The villagers, who initially wanted to bulldoze the 900-year-old temple to build a new one, finally relented after a team from Intach visited the village on Sunday and held discussions.
The team comprising Intact district convenor SVS Lakshminarayana, heritage conservationist Srinath Reddy Pamulapati, Red Cross vice-chairman P Ramachandra Raju and Ravi Srinivas held discussions with the villagers and explained to them the need to protect such precious heritage structures.
Sri Veerabhadra Swamy temple was constructed in 12th century AD in Chalukya-Chola architecture. With structures with higher elevation coming up in the neighbouring areas of the temple, it went below the earth level. This resulted in rainwater from surrounding areas flowing into the temple. After seeing the pathetic condition of the temple, locals decided to build a new temple in modern style after completely demolishing the present structure.With several rich farmers coming forward to bear the reconstruct cost, the locals started preparations to demolish the old temple.
On information, Intact member Srinath Reddy who is also a native of Modukuru rushed to the village and consulted the temple committee. Though he made his best efforts to convince the locals that bulldozing the structure is a big loss to the culture and heritage, the villagers did not relent saying they could not watch the Lord drowning in the rainwater.
Later, Intach district convenor SVS Lakshminarayana spoke to chairman and apprised him of the situation. “Intach chairman Gupta has assured to depute a technical team comprising architects and archaeologists to assess the structure and suggest a scientific plan to renovate the temple,” said Lakshminarayana.
