Temple manuscripts damaged

Mantralayam

Oct. 7: Rare talapatras and original manuscripts of Sri Madhvacharya Mutt in the Vidyapeet in Manatralayam have been damaged by the flood waters of the Tungabadhra that engulfed the temple town.
The talapatras and manuscripts in Sanskrit date back more than 450 years and some are from the period even before Sri Guru Raghavendra Swamy.
It is feared that some of the talapatras have been lost for ever. Crores worth of publications in Kannada, English, and Telugu were also damaged as the rooms in the temple premises and in the Vidyapeet were filled with mud and water.
About 150 students of the Sri Sri Guru Sarvabhouma Sanskrit Vidyapeetam spent two days and nights, between October 2 and 4, on the top of the adyapaka quarters. Aged between seven and 19 years, they were finally rescued by their teachers.
Dr N. Vadirajachar, the principal of the Vidyapeetam, described the harrowing experience.
“We shifted the students one by one from the Vidyapeetam building as the water came in. We didn’t have any food so some of the lecturers, the warden and senior students went out into the flood water to the storehouse and brought back a few bags of rice. Then we cooked food on the top of the quarters and served it to the students as well as the locals.”
“Rare manuscripts, some of which are 450 years old are soaked in water. Some of them have been digitised but the original scripts are lost. We will try to restore them. But right now we are unable to enter the library which still has slush,” said Dr Vadirajachar.

Wedding turns into funeral
A Kurnool resident, G. Ayappa, 30, who had come to this town to attend the marriage of his niece on October 2, drowned in the flood waters.
His relative, Mr B. Hanumanthu, who had filed a police case, said Ayappa was walking with two other persons on the flooded street. Although the two others survived, Ayappa was washed away. At least four other unknown bodies were found in Mantralayam.


Source::DC