Oh sarkari babus! Krishna Mandir continues to weather many a storm

Hyderabad: The Prachin Gopla Krishna mandir in Misri Ganj in the Old City is one of the Hindu temples of Lord Krishna and has been facing several hurdles for several years. It was inherited from the family who constructed the temple by two octogenarian women who are now running it, facing many odds.

These two women, though physically weak, displayed iron grit in protecting and running the temple, and thereby they stood apart. They have lived throughout their lives in the Old City.

Walking down memory lane, they shared their experiences of good and bad times with Hans India. They said the temple has a heritage of about 400 years. But at no point in time, the State Archaeology or any other government authorities had even thought of looking at the temple. On the other hand, there were many occasions when police senior officials even forced them to remove the flag from the temple. Located on a spacious ground, the small rock-pillared temple is adorned with Nagabhandam and Kurmam before the sanctum sactorum, which reflects that it belongs to an older tradition.

The temple had a spacious place before the inner entry, and the main gate of the temple is now being used as a playground. Secondly, the place on the right side of the temple from the main gate was reportedly blocked, and it turned into a tough task to restore them to the temple. Even efforts to construct a door on the northern wall of the temple to provide darshan for the devotees on the auspicious occasion of Uttra Dwara Dashan were met with resistance. The temple is not in a position to construct an opening on its premises, and that shows the sorry state of affairs of the temple, said the local devotees.

“However, the temple could still survive as it has been brought under Sri Hampi Virupaksha Vidyaranya Maha Sansthan. Had it been under the State Endowment Department, the temple might have fallen into the same fate as many other temples facing in Old City, and that is why there is a need to amend or even repeal the Hindu Endowments Act,” says BJP leader Yamuna Pathak.