What happened to Vedapureeswarar Temple, Puducherry?

A question should be asked, why travelers from Greek, French, British and other countries travel to India? Why should they leave their comfort homes and take a risk of traveling to India? During 17th Century, when French travelers traveled to India, all is not well for them. They have succumbed to the prevailing diseases in India and many of them (unrecorded) died without going to their homelands. Yet, many of them stayed back in the Land of Bharat. As you read on you will understand the ulterior motives of some French and other Europeans to stay back. 

 

A French Traveler by name - Gaston Laurent Coeurdoux lived in South India for 47 years. He has fair command on Sanskrit, Latin, Russian, Greek and German. He found similarities in all these languages. During his stay in South India, he composed Sanskrit - French - Telugu Dictionary. His cultural studies in India has opened Gateway for the Europeans to learn about India. French is the language which any European has to master if he claims himself to be called as a Scholar. Coeurdoux was very much interested in the Indian Culture especially on Indian Painting and preparation of Canvas and pigments. We should remember the fact that earlier Voltaire (another French) talked much about Indian paintings as precious export material to Europe. 

Lets try to understand the other side of Coeurdoux in order to bring the ulterior motives of why he traveled to India. The word Coeurdoux means "soft-hearted" person which somehow doesn't suit the person in this context. These French Travelers did not come to India to study India but to convert more Indians into Christianity. They did not hide this fact but openly stated their motives. However, in order to be successful to convert Indians to Christianity, they believed that they should know the Culture of India as better as Indians do. Only then they could convince or relate themselves to the Indians to convert to their religion. Hence, in this case, Coeurdoux appeared to be a very good scholar of Indian Culture.

 

In 1705, there was a famous Pagode called Vedapurshwar temple of Puducherry. Pagode means temple during those days. Now this word is being used to depict temples in Japan. This Vedapurshwar temple is famous for Lord Shiva Deity. This temple is adjacent to St. Paul Cathedral Church. Hence, there was always a sense of hatred on Idol Worship in temple premises and the Coeurdoux asked the King Louis (the 14th King) for demolishing the temple. The King gave permission but the action of demolition was not carried because some of the French Governor's thought that the so-called act would provoke the sentiments of the locals and thus kept the matter in abeyance. 

In a diary written by Ananda Ranga Pillai (Volume 5) who is a du-bash (which means a person who can translate between two languages) has narrated the incident of French demolition of the famous Vedapurshwar temple. Joseph François Dupleix was one of the French Governor who married Jeanne Albert in the year 1741. Jeanne Albert was a Christian convert. Albert was known to the Hindus as Joanna Begum and proved of great help to her husband in his negotiations with the native princes. It was understood that Jeanne pestered her husband to demolish the famous Hindu temple of Lord Shiva which ultimately happened. The incident can be understood from the following testimony found on 7th September 1748. 

 

The testimony reads like this - "This morning tents were pitched round St. Paul Church, and two hundred soldiers and a hundred sepoys were quartered there - and priests were told that the Shiva temple would be demolished." The next day, just then, news was brought that Father Coeurdoux, the superior of St. Paul Church, had kicked the inner shrine with his foot and ordered the Christians to break the Vahanams. Then Father Coeurdoux of Karikal came with a great hammer, kicked the lingam, broke it with his hammer and ordered the Coffrees (pagans) and the Europeans to break the image of Vishnu and the other Gods. Madame went and told the priest that he might break the idols as he pleased. He answered that she had accomplished what had been impossible for 50 years..."

This account of sadism tells us that a traveler to India in the disguise of a Scholar (as he appeared to be to Indians) took to Violence and Destruction of a rich Hindu Heritage. 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%B5%E0%AF%88_%E0%AE%B5%E0%AF%87%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%80%E0%AE%B8%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%8D_%E0%AE%86%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%AF%E0%AE%95%E0%AF%8D_%E0%AE%95%E0%AF%8B%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D.jpg

With the painstaking efforts of Diwan Kandappa Mudaliar and public assistance, the temple was reconstructed in the year 1788 which is now located in Gandhi Street. Lord Shiva is known as Vedapureeswarar and Parvathi is known as Tripurasundari. 

Reference:

I take the opportunity to refer the above story of facts to Michel Danino in his lecture addressing Students of IIT Gandhinagar. 

Dr. B. Ravikanth

SANSKRIT LANGUAGE: IS IT FORGOTTEN?

Sanskrit is regarded as the ancient language in Hinduism, where it was used as a means of communication and dialogue by the Hindu Celestial Gods, and then by the Indo-Aryans. Sanskrit is also widely used in Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. The term ‘Sanskrit’ is derived from the conjoining of the prefix ‘Sam’ meaning ‘samyak’ which indicates ‘entirely’, and ‘krit’ that indicates ‘done’. Thus, the name indicates perfectly or entirely done in terms of communication, reading, hearing, and the use of vocabulary to transcend and express an emotion. An extraordinarily complex language with a vast vocabulary, it is still widely used today in the reading of sacred texts and hymns.

NASA has described Sanskrit as the best language for computers. NASA has been researching on 60,000 Sanskrit manuscripts written on palm leaves, to decipher the ancient technologies from the manuscripts. Sanskrit is taught and studied in many renowned universities across the globe. For instance,

The State University of Ohio
The University of Columbia
Harvard University
Indiana University
The University of Alabama
The University of Calgary
The University of Chicago
The University of Florida
The University of Toronto
The University of Virginia
The University of Queensland
The University of Bonn
The University of Berlin
Oxford University
Cambridge University
The University of Rome
The University of Beijing

Sanskrit has been admired by many European scholars for ages. Influenced by the literary beauty of Sanskrit, Heinrich Roth and Johann Ernst Hanxleden had started offering scholarship to the learners of Sanskrit in Europe. Sir William Jones, an eminent scholar and philologist in the 18th century, had given the following statement of admiration to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1786:

"The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar".

Sanskrit is not totally forgotten. Lets see the facts:

1. According to 2001 census, Sanskrit is the native language of 14, 135 people in India. It is growing since then.

2. Samskrita Bharati promotes the greatness of the language not just in India but across the globe.

3.  There are 7 Sanskrit speaking villages in India such as - Mattur & Hosahalli (Karnataka), Jhiri, Bhaguwar & Mohad (Madhya Pradesh), Sasana (Orissa), Ganoda (Rajasthan).

Not only the historic monuments but Sanskrit is the heritage of India too. If Sanskrit is not preserved and revived, a greater being of ancient India will be lost in the wilderness. It is as precious as the Tejo Mahal. Indian Eagle believes in the eternity and glory of Sanskrit as pride of India.

(Extracted from https://www.indianeagle.com/travelbeats/facts-of-sanskrit-in-india/)