700-year-old idol recovered in Melur

MADURAI

An idol of Goddess Draupadi, said to have gone missing from Draupadi Amman Temple in Melur near here during the British era, was found concealed in a wall of the ancestral house of the then assistant priest, Kandasamy, on Sunday.

Sleuths of Idol Wing were present when the wall of one of the rooms of the house, now owned by one Machakalai, was demolished. The sleuths recovered the metal idol measuring one and a half feet in height. The police said that the idol could be over 700 years old.

An Idol Wing police officer said that the idol went missing in 1915 after differences of opinion arose between Kandasamy and a priest.

Recently, Kandasamy’s grandson K. Murugesan, who was running a teashop in Namakkal, had come to the temple and said that he had a suspicion that his grandfather could have concealed the idol in the wall of his ancestral house. “His suspicion stemmed from the fact that Kandasamy used to offer prayers at a particular spot,” the police officer said.

After the present owner of the house, Machakalai, agreed for the demolition of the wall, it was demolished on Sunday and the idol was found in the wall.

The police said that a complaint had been lodged with the British police then. Another complaint was lodged in 2018 to find out the whereabouts of the idol.

Referring to the temple records that said that the Goddess was called ‘Mukkanudaiyal’ – a Goddess with three eyes – the police said that the third eye was seen in the idol. The idol was taken to the temple and a special puja was performed to it.