Mandya: Rtd Muslim teacher renovates four dilapidated temples

Bengaluru: India is a country of diversity and we often see many instances where people of different religions come together for a great cause. When there are many historical temples at the stage of extinction, Mohammed Kaleemulla, a retired high school teacher is working hard towards the renovation of the temples. He has so far renovated 4 historical temples in Mandya district.

Mohammed, who is also a member of Karnataka Itihasa Acadamy, spends a lot of time in searching such temples that are in need of renovation. He has so far helped in renovating temples from the Krisnadevaraya period, Machalaghatta Ishwara Temple and 2 other temples dedicated to Chennakeshava. Khaleemulla has also renovated a Basava Temple in Hirisave at Channarayapatna.

Khaleemulla did his post-graduation in History after retirement and he has pursued his masters in the same.

Speaking in this regard he said, “When I was working at Balasuru in Mandya, there was a Hoysala temple dedicated to Lord Mallikarjuna. I used to see the temple daily while I was on may to work and wrote an article about the same, which was later published in a newspaper. This further motivated me to do more work in this area, then while I was researching about the  historical temples in this region, I found that many of them lacked maintenance.”

He further added, “The localities of the region are not aware of the historical importance as they were defecated on the ruins of the temples. I later helped in renovating the structure of the temples and informed people to not to defecate there.”.

Dhanapal K, a BMTC driver assigned to Bengaluru Darshini trips is involved in Academy’s work. In his weekly offs he travels around the monuments of the city and document inscriptions of the same. He gained interest in epigraphy as he went to tourist places as a part of his work and is now pursuing an epigraphy course. To help the tourists, he has written a booklet that has information about the city.

“I found an inscription dating back 1528 at Yelahanka three years ago in a ditch covered with slush and snakes beneath the stone. I informed the archeology department and officials recovered this. I realized that there could be many such things neglected in this manner. and I began working on this” Dhanapal said.

Narrating about the superstition of people on reading these inscriptions and creating awareness of these he added “People believe that if they recover these inscriptions, misfortune will hit them. I want to fight against such superstitions.” He also adds boards about the detail of these inscriptions to create awareness to locals.

Another prominent member of this work is Raghavendra Achari, a mason from Davanagere. He could not study beyond SSLC, holds a diploma in epigraphy over distance education. He ensures that all his workers at construction sites get awareness about the history of the heritage in the region.

“Since my school days, I had an interest in learning monuments and historical structures. I study epigraphy every night after work and I watch out for such monuments when I travel to different towns on work. I also seek villagers’ help in bringing the photos” He said. Under the banner of ‘Prachina Itihasa Samshodhana Kendra’, he has conducted as many as 118 awareness drives in local villages.

All these members of this Karnataka Itihasa Acadamy have informed that they are carrying these work on saving such historical memorabilia on their own interests. Without any monetary help from the government, they are conserving the state’s heritage by spending from their own pockets.

Well, they are creating history by preserving the historical heritage of the future. Their work in building the sense of awareness camps and bringing localities together for this cause is laudable.