Renowned as a Vaishnavite Thenkalai temple, the Sri Andal temple in Srivilliputhur, in Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu, now boasts of a Rs. 24 crores gold plated tower or vimanam!
Andal temple in Srivilliputhur, Tamil Nadu. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
The Rs. 24 crores spent on this process included the material cost of gold and copper as well as the labour charges of applying the gold plating on the tower painstakingly over a period of five years.
Nearly 5080 square feet of area of the tower was first covered by copper ornamental work and then by gold foil fixing. Nearly 78 kilos of precious metal was used to complete the plating!
Temple officials had initiated the work to make the tower rival the one at Tirumala Tirupati and they claim this is now the biggest golden vimanam in India!
There is a special consecration ceremony called a Kumbabhishekam planned on the 20th of January for which this golden tower was completed in time.
The Sri Nachiyar Charity Trust, led by P. R. Ramasubramaniya Raja, Chairman of Ramco Group of Industries, had led the task of gold-plating the Andal tower.
The temple holds an important place among the 108 Divya Desams of Vaishnavites. It is dedicated to Andal, who was found under the Tulsi plant in the temple garden. She was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu and eventually married the Ranganatha avatar of the Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple fame who is said to have merged with Vishnu.
The only other shrines that enjoy the distinction of a gold vimanam are the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam and the Sri Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram.
