Tuesday, 27 May 2014

SACRED WATERBODIES



                                                            M. Amirthalingam


  







Parbatisarovar is the tank attached to the Loknath temple which is situated about 3 kms from the Jagannath temple. The main deity of the temple, Shri Loknathji is the guardian of Shri Jagannath Temple’s treasure house.





 Loknathji (in the form of a linga) always remains submerged in the water from the natural spring at Parbati sarovar.  Loknathji is also known as Bhandar Lokanath.








RohiniKunda is located inside the temple of Lord Jagannath. It is one of the ‘Pancha Tirthas’ (five holy spots), the other four being Swethaganga, Indradyumna sarovar, Markandey sarovar and Tirtharaj Mahanadhi (Puri sea).


Swetha Ganga





SwethaGanga is a small tank to the west of the Jagannath temple. On the banks of the tank are two small temples, one dedicated to Sweta Madhava and the other to Matsya Madhava, both incarnations of Lord Vishnu.


There is urgent need of a programme to revive the temple tanks. They have to be properly maintained by annual desilting.  Polluting the temple tanks should be discouraged by meting out strict punishments. The inlets and the outlets should be regularly cleaned and maintained.  Gardens and parks should be established around the tanks which can be used as recreation space by the public.  The maintenance of the tanks should be entrusted to local people’s committees. Unplanned development and growth of the urban areas around the temple complexes should be stopped. 





The temple tanks have traditionally been considered as a sacred space and used not only for religious purposes but also as a source of water in times of drought.  It has been one of ancient practices of water conservation in India.  It is time that we revive the ancient systems of water management that have served us so well over the centuries.




http://www.cpreecenvis.nic.in/Home.aspx 

http://www.cpreecenvis.nic.in/Database/Sacred_waterbodies_928.aspx 

No comments:

Post a Comment