Kasi Viswanathar Temple, Ayanavaram – History
The temple owes its existence to the Tawkers clan of
Gujarati origin. They had moved to South and made Trichy its base in the 1700s.
Most of the members of this community used T as their initial, thereby
establishing their connection with the historic town of the Rock Fort. It was,
however, two women of the family who really were the prime movers and this was
around 200 years ago. Two Gujrati women from Tawker clan, Ramkor Bai and Ratna
Bai were sisters, were wealthy in their own right. According to family legend,
had at one time even lent money to the East India Company to finance its cloth
trade. They had been on a pilgrimage to Varanasi and brought with them two
Shiva Lingas. One was enshrined at the Motta Utara on Mint Street.
The sisters planned to consecrate the
second Linga on land owned by them at Ayanavaram. The Temple was
built with a modest tower, a courtyard, some sub-shrines and a sanctum with two
shrines in it, one for Kasi Viswanatha Swami and the other for his consort
Visalakshi. A tank was excavated across the road. It is said that the sisters
had planned to build a companion shrine for Vishnu as well, probably on the
lines of the Chenna Kesava and Chenna Malleeswarar Temple of George Town. But a
burglar made off with the money earmarked for the second project and so it
never materialized.
In order to ensure a permanent source of income for the
temple, the Tawkers built a row of single-storey, tile-roofed street houses in
a line that runs parallel to the shops that front the road. Each has a low
entrance, a vestibule leading to a central courtyard and a few rooms including
a kitchen leading off it. A well was dug for each house to ensure water supply.
These were to be rented out to middle-class families. This row, protected as it
is from the main road by the row of shops, has remained completely intact and,
being in continuous use, is in a fair state of preservation. The line of houses
reminds you of the agraharam (the first circle of houses around a
temple) in any village in Tamil Nadu.
At the end of this street stands the Tawker Choultry.
Entered through tall doors, it was meant originally as a guest-house and is now
a hostel for indigent students. Around a central courtyard are rooms meant for
senior students and a dormitory for newcomers. The rooms are spartan, equipped
with a stone couch and a few pegs to hang clothes on. The roof is a combination
of Madras terrace and Mangalore tiles. Meant to accommodate at least twenty
students. The Tawker line that built the temple died out over time and the
administration passed on to the Dagat family and, from them, it came to the
Daveys. They take care of the well-being of the shrine and the Choultry.
An intriguing tale has persisted in the family.
Apparently, the money loaned to the East India Company was never returned and
the Government of Madras continued paying interest on it till independence and
this was in turn passed on to the temple administration. Post-independence,
however, the payment was stopped and the hereditary trustees took the matter to
court. The judgement was in their favour and the principal amount was returned,
the exchange rate for the pagoda vs the rupee being calculated for the purpose.
Over the years the temple lost a lot of its surrounding
land. The Ayanavaram Bus Depot, Annai Sathya Nagar and other residential
colonies came up on land acquired from the shrine by the Government. The Tawker
sisters evidently planned a huge temple chariot to load the deity on, for which
a flight of steps was built abutting the temple wall. Today the staircase leads
to the roof of the bus depot. New constructions also saw the tank being
separated from the temple by the main road. An inscription on a granite slab
let into the doorway of the temple mentions the name of Viswanatha Tawker.