Heard that Govindaraja Swami Idol from Chidambaram temple was removed and it was kept in Tirupathi for some time because of a saivate king, and after that it was restored back to Chidambaram.
Please let me know the authenticity of the above information.
As of today, still many temples have Sudhai idols, Srirangam is having Sudhai Mulavar Idol. There are some other temples which has Idols made of Wood, eg. Thirukkoviloor, Thiruvaheendrapuram. When I visited Thiruvaheendrapuram, I came to know that they don't perform thirumanjanam, instead "Thilla Kappu" is done twice in a year to maintain the idol. There may be some similiar practices in other temples which doesn't have stone idols.
In kanchi-Devarajaswami temple, 'Atthi Varadhar' idol is kept in the temple pond which is taken once in 40 years. The old Varadhar idol(wood) in kanchi was replaced by a stone idol.
Are the temple idols were also changed when the temple is renovated from 'Sengals' to 'Granite stones'? I think one of the possible old south indian stone idol may be that of Lord Srinivasa at Tirumalai.
Thanks for informing about the book details. I will try to get them.
Out of curiosity I am mentioning this, sometime back, I have read a book online by Dr. K. Jamanadas - 'Tirupati Balaji was a Buddhist Shrine'. I hope you know well about that also. Being a vaishnavite I found that one interesting. The most interesting thing that I noticed is the author has used many books relating to the Vaishnava aspect of the temple to prove the temple as an Buddhist shrine.
> found that one interesting. The most interesting thing that I noticed is > the author has used many books relating to the Vaishnava aspect of the
Please read "The History of Thirumala - 3 volumes" by TTD. Fantastic book. Also read "Early Buddhist Rock art in India - Vidya Dehejia" to understand how buddhist shrines (Chaityas) looked like in BC to 3rd cen
The reference to lord vishnu in thirumala and srirangam is atleast as old as silappathikaaram if not more. A passing reference to srirangam panguni utsavam is made in sangam literature.
I read a book by K.P aravaanan called "Thamizhar pirantakam" in which he has dealth with thirumalai (venkatam) very well. I'll see if i can post something from this book
I have read the article you are referring to. It is a highly biased article full of mistakes and factual errors.
regrding chage of images when a temple was changed into a all stone one .
there is a specific case of kolaramma temple, kolar. here the older stucco (sudhai) images are prteserved when the temple was redone in stone. later another set of images in stone was erected in a seperate shrine.