Chennai, July 28 (BPNS)
The idol wing of the Tamil Nadu police has initiated steps to bring back an exquisite idol of Chola queen Sembiyan Mahadevi that was allegedly stolen from a village temple in Nagapattinam around a century ago. The idol has been traced to the Freer Gallery in the United States of America and an old complaint on the stolen idol has been used to bring back the idol.
It is noted that queen Sembiyan Mahadevi of the Chola dynasty was worshipped as the avatar of ‘Goddess Parvathi’ in the Sembiyan Mahadevi village temple that is about 25 km from Nagapattinam. The issue had come to light after social activist and lawyer ‘Elephant’ G. Rajendran spotted the idol at the Freer Gallery in 2015 and lodged a complaint in 2018.
In his complaint, the social activist cum lawyer said that he found a metal sculpture at the Art gallery with a note below the pedestal recorded as ‘Sembiyan Mahadevi, Chola dynasty, 10th century, Tamil Nadu ,India’. The metal sculpture, according to Rajendran was 3.5 feet height.
A senior officer with the idol wing told BPNS that Rajendran in his complaint stated that after he came back from the United States, he went to the Sembiyan Mahadevi Village in Nagapattinam and on enquiry found that the old idol at the Kailasanatha Swamy Sivan temple was replaced by a replica. He also found that this copy of the idol was commissioned in the year 1959 by the then Executive Officer (EO) of the temple.
DGP of Tamil Nadu idol wing Police, Jayant K. Murali while speaking to media said ,” We came to understand from the Freer Gallery after contacting them that they had purchased the sculpture from Hagop Kervakian, an art collector who had passed away in 1962. We have now commenced probe as to how this person got hold of the idol and the price he had paid for it. We have also sought the assistance and support of Homeland Security in the United States to unearth his links with other art collectors as he had sold several antiquities and art collections from across several countries including India in the US.”
The idol wing police have already got the stone inscriptions in the Kailasanatha Swamy temple deciphered using the Epigraphy branch of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). The idol wing could also find out that the Executive Officer of the temple had commissioned a new idol in 1959 after enquiring with the local people in the village.
DGP ,Jayant Murali while speaking to BPNS said, “ We found that the theft has occurred before 1929 and we have ruled out the involvement of the HR&CE department as it was formed after 1929.” He adds,” We have also found that the existing idol at the temple which is one and a half feet is fake.”
Sources in the idol wing also told BPNS that the probe is into all aspects as to who stole the idol, to whom it was handed over and how it reached the hands of Hagop Kevorkian and how he had shipped it.
