Residents of Tiruvottiyur in north Chennai, one of the oldest settlements in the city, are afraid they may lose their identity. They say Chennai Metro Rail has named a station coming up in their locality as Gowri Ashram instead of calling it by its own name.
Great saints, including Appar, Sundarar, Manickavasagar and Pattinathar, have worshipped at the Sri Thyagarajaswamy Temple.
“Even Adi Sankara is said to have visited the temple, which is why even now the Namboodiris perform pooja at the temple. Our town grew up around the temple and it is still its centre. We don’t want to be known as Gowri Ashram,” said Ma. Ki. Ramanan, a Tamil scholar.
A group of devotees of the temple and other residents have been submitting petitions to various MLAs and MPs and even the Chief Minister urging that the station be named as Tiruvottiyur Koil. “Gowri Ashram is only a property on the Tiruvottiyur High Road. Like how Mundagakanniamman Koil station or Thirumayilai on the Mass Rapid Transit System are named after famous temples in Mylapore, we want our station to be named after our temple,” said S. Ambigaidas, an advocate.
Historian V. Sriram, who expressed solidarity with the residents, said that Tiruvottiyur or Thiruvottriyur as it used to be known, had been around at least from 1st or 2nd Century.
“It had such an exalted position that it was exempted from the payment of taxes. It was considered very holy for both the Pallavas and the Cholas. Inscriptions from the times of both Rajaraja Chola and Rajendra Chola can be found in the sanctum sanctorum. Carnatic music composers Muthuswamy Dikshithar and Thyagaraja have worshipped at the temple too,” he explained.
Signature campaign
Residents are planning a signature campaign to urge the Metro Rail to change the name. If that does not work, they have planned protests to save their identity. “We fought hard for the station, staging protests and won. Now they are giving us a station but taking away our identity,” said V. Rajkumar, a resident of Theradi.
Metro Rail officials, meanwhile, said the names of stations cannot be changed as they had already been approved by the State.
(With inputs from Sunitha Sekar)