An idol of Lord Hanuman, which was stolen a decade in the past from Tamil Nadu’s Ariyalur district and smuggled overseas, will likely be repatriated to India quickly. The 14th-Fifteenth century statue, belonging to the Vijayanagar interval, was discovered with a personal purchaser in Australia not too long ago.
Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy tweeted on Wednesday: “Five hundred-year-old Lord Hanuman bronze idol stolen from Tamil Nadu temple, to be repatriated back to India. The stolen idol retrieved by US Homeland Security was handed over to @HCICanberra by US CDA.” On Tuesday, it was returned to Indian High Commissioner Manpreet Vohra at Canberra, by Australian Chargé d’Affaires Michael Goldman.
According to officers within the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the custodian of such artefacts until they’re handed again to their state of origin, “This Anjaneyar (Hanuman) idol was burgled along with Sri Devi idol and Boodevi idol from the Varadharaja Perumal temple in Vellur disease, Ariyalur, on April 9, 2012.”
Officials added that in March 2014, this idol was auctioned by Chrisitie’s for $37,500 to a purchaser in Australia. Upon discovery and consequent investigation, it was discovered to be the identical idol that was stolen from India.
For this, the Tamil Nadu Idol Wing was assisted by the US Homeland Security. Sources stated the New York-based public sale home and the client in Australia had been unaware of the statue’s stolen origins. The idol will likely be dropped at the nation inside a month and handed over to the Idol Wing. It will likely be restored to the temple from the place it was stolen, the ASI official added.
A couple of days in the past, one other distinguished artefact — the idol of Avalokiteshwara Padamapani (Buddha) put in on the Devisthan Kundalpur temple in Bihar, which went lacking twenty years in the past – was handed over to the Indian consulate in Milan. It can be more likely to attain Delhi inside a month. The statue was created between eighth and twelfth century, and smuggled in another country round 2000.
Notably, the 18th-century statue of Goddess Annapurna, stolen 100 years in the past from Varanasi, was introduced again from Ottawa, Canada in October. It was put in at Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi a month later.
The authorities has retrieved round 212 artefacts, primarily statues and idols manufactured from metallic, stone, and terracotta within the final seven years. According to the Ministry of Culture, most of them (together with the 157 that had been handed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York final yr) have come from the United States.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
