Officials of the Idol Wing CID took possession of two metal idols of Veenadhara Dakshinamurthy and Tiripuranthagar from the art gallery at the Thanjavur palace complex on Saturday, on the ground that they belonged to the Sri Brihadeeswarar Temple.
The action came after Madras High Court-appointed Special Officer Ponn Manickavel and Idol Wing officials conducted an elaborate inspection of the art gallery. Mr. Manickavel said 66 idols were presented to the Big Temple during Raja Raja Chola’s reign.
This could be gleaned from information provided in inscriptions at the temple.
Some of the panchaloha idols at the temple went missing several years ago and a complaint was lodged by the Idol Wing in this connection with the Thanjavur West police station in 2018. Subsequently, the idols of Raja Raja Chola I and his consort Lokamadevi were recovered from a museum in Ahmedabad and restored to the temple.
As part of the continuing investigation in the case, the idols of Veenadhara Dakshinamurthy and Tiripuranthagar, weighing about 60 kg and 56 kg, respectively, were taken possession of from the art gallery. They are expected to be restored to the temple after court proceedings.
Idol Wing officials explained to the art gallery that the idols did not belong there and were meant for worship. The idols were briefly housed at the Rajagopalaswamy Temple in Thanjavur and the Thanjavur Devasthanam before coming into the possession of the art gallery, Mr. Manickavel said.
When contacted, an official with the art gallery told The Hindu that the idols had been with the gallery since its establishment in 1951.
The Idol Wing will produce the idols before the special court hearing idol theft cases in Kumbakonam and hand them over to the appropriate authority as per the court’s direction, a senior officer said.
