Punnainallur Kailasanathar Temple

The Punnainallur Kailasanathar Temple, is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva located at Punnainallur near Thanjavur in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

Vimana

Palace Devasthanam

Thanjavur Palace Devasthanam comprises 88 temples, of which this temple is the one. They are maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu.[1][2][3]

Location

This temple is located at the south of the Punnainallur Mariamman Temple, on the Thanjavur-Tiruvarur road, facing east.[4] Punnainallur Kothandaramar Temple is also near to this place.

Presiding deity

The presiding deity is known as Kailasanathar. In front of the sanctum sanctorum balipeetam, nandhi, sculptures of Sambandar, Appar, Sundarar and Manikkavacakar are found. In the left the shrine of goddess Kalyanasundari is found. In the prakara Ganapathi, Ayyappan, Karthikeya with Valli and Deivanai, Gajalakshmi, Anjaneya Navagrahas, Sani, Bhairava, Surya and Chandra and in the kosta of the presiding deity Ganapathi, Dakshinamurti, Lingodbhava, Brahma and Durga are found.

Idol Theft

The Nataraja idol belonging to the temple was stolen in 1971. A volunteer-collective India Pride Project with support of ASI, New Delhi has traced the idol to Asia Society Museum, New York in the United States and was able get the idol repatriated in 2021.[5][6][7][8][9][10] [11]

References
  1. Thanjavur Palace Devasthanam, Thanjavur 613 009
  2. தஞ்சாவூர் அரண்மனை தேவஸ்தானத்தைச் சேர்ந்த ஆலயங்கள், தஞ்சை இராஜராஜேச்சரம் திருக்குட நன்னீராட்டுப் பெருவிழா மலர், 1997, வ.எண்.82
  3. J.M.Somasundaram Pillai, The Great Temple at Tanjore, [Tanjore Palace Devastanams, II Edn 1958] Rpt 1994, Tamil University, Thanjavur, Sl.No.82
  4. திருக்கோயில்கள் வழிகாட்டி, தஞ்சாவூர் மாவட்டம், தமிழ்நாடு அரசு இந்து சமய அறநிலையத்துறை, சென்னை, 2014
  5. "Jailed idol smuggler Subhash Kapoor charged in U.S." The Hindu. PTI. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2023. ... Leading city-based cultural organisation, The Asia Society is also studying the provenance of at least one item — a 12th-century copper-alloy statue of the deity Shiva dancing in the center of a spoked circle — that Indian officials believe was looted ...
  6. "How India Pride Project Helped the Return Of Looted Indian Artefacts from The United States". Yahoo News. Retrieved 12 August 2023. ... Similarly, we discovered the iconic Nataraja from Punnainallur based on a tip we received from a confidential informant "SP" who provided us inputs—from an elderly priest—of a theft that happened in 1971 from the temple with the FIR closed as untraceable. We worked with the local sources to dig out the temple asset register and old institutional photographs. Armed with these we managed to trace the Nataraja to the "reputed" Asia Society Museum in New York. ...
  7. "Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Shiva Nataraja), 12th century". Artsy. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  8. "Asia Society Returns Chola Sculpture to India" (Press release). New York: Asia Society. October 28, 2021. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
  9. "U.S. returns 248 antiquities valued at $15 million to India". The Hindu. PTI. 29 October 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2023. ...  Other items from the same seizure were repatriated to India in August 2020. A bronze Shiva Nataraja, circa 12th century, valued at $4 million, that was stolen in the 1960s from a temple and smuggled into New York before being sold by Doris Wiener, whose daughter, Nancy Wiener, was convicted by the Office in 2021. The Asia Society, the unwitting recipient of the piece, cooperated fully with the investigation. ...
  10. Mathur, Swati (2 June 2022). "10 stolen antiquities recovered from abroad returned to Tamil Nadu". Times of India. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  11. "Tamil Nadu: Rousing reception in Kailasanathar temple for Nataraja idol retrieved after 45 years". Times of India. 10 June 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2023.

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