Chennai (The Hawk): A dancing Krishna idol that was stolen from a Tamil Nadu temple 56 years ago has been found in a US museum by the idol wing of the Tamil Nadu police.
According to a statement from Jayanth Murali, director general of the Tamil Nadu idol wing police, the idol was located at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indiana, the US. the idol that was taken from Thangachimadam village's Ekantha Ramaswamy temple in Rameswaram.
On November 22, 2022, the idol wing police launched an inquiry after receiving a complaint from G. Narayani, Executive Officer, HR&CE department.
An old Krishna idol that belonged to the temple was among the three or more idols that the executive officer said were stolen in 1966.
The Tamil Nadu idol wing was asked by the executive officer to look into the matter and bring the idols back to the temple.
The French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) was asked by the Tamil Nadu police to provide any images it may have in its photo archives from the Ekanthaswami temple after the investigating officers of the idol wing of the Tamil Nadu police were unable to locate any images of the antique Sri Krishna idol.
According to the announcement from the idol wing, the French Institute of Puducherry supplied six digital photographs from their photo archives and discovered the dancing Krishna idol.
The idol wing searched through numerous museum and gallery websites and discovered an idol of Dancing Krishna that resembled the IFP image that was posted on the website of the Indianapolis museum in Indiana, the US. An expert compared the photo that was downloaded and provided with the IFP photo and found that the two images were of the same idol.
After creating supporting documentation, the idol wing asserted ownership of the Dancing Krishna idol.
In order to recover the idol and return it to the Ekantha Ramaswamy temple, the police will shortly submit a thorough report to the US.
(Inputs from Agencies)
