Why in the News
The Ashmolean Museum has returned a 16th century bronze statue of Thirumangai Alvar to the Government of India after provenance research confirmed that the idol originally belonged to the Sundararaja Perumal Temple in Tamil Nadu.
Key Facts
- The statue was handed over to the Indian High Commission in London.
- The Ashmolean Museum had acquired the idol in 1967 from a private collector J.R. Belmont.
- Provenance research linked the statue to a 1957 photograph from the temple archives preserved by the Institut Français de Pondichéry and the École française d’Extrême-Orient.
- In 2020, the temple authorities filed a police complaint after discovering that the original idol had been replaced with a replica.
| About Thirumangai AlvarOne of the 12 Alvars, the Tamil poet-saints devoted to Lord Vishnu.Associated with the Bhakti movement in South India.His hymns are part of the Divya Prabandham, an important Vaishnavite devotional text. |
Significance of the Repatriation
- Restoration of stolen cultural heritage to its original religious context.
- Demonstrates growing global cooperation against illicit trafficking of antiquities.
- Strengthens India’s efforts to recover temple idols and artefacts smuggled abroad.
Prelims Pointers
- Alvars: Tamil Vaishnavite saints who composed devotional hymns to Vishnu.
- Major Alvar texts compiled in Nalayira Divya Prabandham.
- Idol repatriation often occurs through provenance research and diplomatic negotiations.
| [2022] The world’s second tallest statue in sitting pose of Ramanuja was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India at Hyderabad recently. Which one of the following statements correctly represents the teachings of Ramanuja? (a) The best means of salvation was devotion. (b) Vedas are eternal, self-existent and wholly authoritative. (c) Logical arguments were essential means for the highest bliss. (d) Salvation was to be obtained through meditation. |
