Chennai, March 1 (PTI) The first bench of the Madras High Court was informed on Tuesday that a peacock idol, which went missing in 2004 from the famous Sri Kapaleeshwarar-Karpagambal temple at Mylapore here, is believed to have been buried in the shrine tank.

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A submission to this effect was made by State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah when the PIL from Rangarajan Narasimhan of Srirangam in Tiruchirappalli district came up for further hearing today.

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The petition alleged that the original idol of peacock, which was offering flowers to the deity Punnaivana Nathar in its beak, was found missing after the Kumbabhishekam (consecration) conducted in 2004.

It was replaced with another idol of a peacock carrying a snake in its beak, which was against the Agama Shastras. He prayed for a direction to the authorities concerned to trace out the original idol and install the same in front of the deity Punnaivana Nathar. When the matter came up before the bench of Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy today, Jinnah told them the police investigation has revealed that some idols were believed to have been buried in the temple tank.

Instead of digging up the whole tank, the police have decided to obtain the assistance of the Anna University to find out whether some technology is available to locate the idols said to have been buried and whether they could be retrieved without much damage to the tank, he added.

The counsel for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) told the bench that the department has decided to replace the present fake peacock idol carrying a snake in its beak, with another one carrying a flower. As per the legend, the original peacock used flowers to worship Punnaivana Nathar.

And the bench adjourned the matter by two weeks. In the meantime, efforts should be taken to trace out the original idol either from the Mylapore tank or elsewhere. If it couldn't be traced out, then a new one, as per the Agamas, could be installed, the bench added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)