Valluvar Kottam

The Valluvar Kottam (Tamil: வள்ளுவர் கோட்டம் [ ʋaɭ ː ko ː ʈ ː ɯʋər ʌm ] ) is a 1976 -built monument to the poet Thiruvalluvar ( Valluvar ) in Chennai ( Madras), the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The poet Tiruvalluvar written probably in the 5th or 6th century, the ethical and moral didactic poem Tirukkural, which enjoys a high reputation among Tamils ​​.

Specifications

The Valluvar Kottam is located in Nungambakkam district on the site of a filled-in lake. It was designed by sculptor V. Ganapati Sthapati and is built in the traditional south Indian style of architecture, as he finds himself in the medieval Hindu temples of Tamil Nadu. Core of the system is a 67 × 30 meters large auditorium with 4,000 seats. All 1330 verses of Tirukkural, are engraved on the granite pillars of the gallery which surrounds the room. On the roof of the auditorium there is a roof terrace with two pools. The complex is surrounded by a garden.

The most striking architectural feature of the Valluvar Kottam is about 30 meters high stone replica of a temple car, which stands at the end of the main axis of the building. The base of the temple car is equipped with bas-reliefs representing the 133 chapters of the Tirukkural. Inside the temple there is a statue Tiruvalluvars car.

Genesis

The Thiruvalluvar Statue is a prestigious project of the politician M. Karunanidhi, the Chairman of the Tamil nationalist DMK and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Karunanidhi and the DMK stylized Tiruvalluvar an icon of Tamil cultural nationalism. In an initiative Karunanidhis is also the construction of a second monumantalen Thiruvalluvar Memorial, the Thiruvalluvar Statue in Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India, back.

The construction of a monument to Tiruvalluvar and the recourse to traditional South Indian designs should emphasize the Tamil identity of the otherwise dominated by the British colonial city of Chennai. At the same time Karunanidhi sat Valluvar Kottam with even a monument. The stone temple car is an oversized replica of the temple car of the town Tiruvarur, comes from the vicinity of Karunanidhi, thus emphasizing the connection between Karunanidhi and the Valluvar Kottam. Originally it was to be built of red and black granite ( red and black are the colors of the party DMK). The Karunanidhi government was deposed in 1976 but during the emergency legislation Indira Gandhi before the completion of Valluvar Kottam, and the structure was built in ordinary gray granite to an end. The planned pompous inauguration ceremony was canceled. As Karunanidhi in 1989 returned again to the office of the Chief Minister, he chose the Valluvar Kottam symbolic as a place of his inauguration.

Pictures

Detail of the entrance

The temple car seen from the roof terrace

Detail view of the temple car