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| Maragatha Lingam stolen from Thiyagaraja Swamy temple indiatimes.com |
For the following reasons, much importance was attached to the Emerald Lingam:
01. The idol made of green gemstone dates back to more than 1,000 years.
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| Rajendra Chola. epaper.timesgroup.com |
02. The lingam is believed to have been brought by none other than King Rajendra Chola, son of great Rajaraja Chola who had built the big temple in Thanjavur more than 1010 years ago..
03. The temple is administered by the famous Dharmapuram Adheenam (near Mayavaram, TN) that has many temples under its control.
04. As part of daily puja ritual to the main deity, the temple priests perform never fail to offer worship to the historical emerald Shiva lingam.
05. The puja ritual is done to the Maragatha Lingam in the sanctum both in the morning and in the evening as per the tradition of the tmple..
06. The recovered emerald lingam has divinity attached to it because in the last one thousand years it has been an object of worship, periodic abhishekam and adoration.
07. Yet another interesting and subtle fact is the emerald lingam was worshiped by king Rajendra Chola and his descendants in the later period. So, there is no denial of its historical and heritage aspects. Further, Beryl (Maragatham) is of a big size and rarely occurs in nature.
08. It is likely the Chola ruler would have acquired it from a foreign land..
09. The stolen lingam is priceless and is part of daily worship that includes anointing it with water, milk and honey. The idol is believed to have ''healing powers,”
10. The stolen Maragatha lingam was recovered by the idol wing of the Tamil Nadu police from two culprits who happened to be DMK workers. They were in the process of selling it to a trader at Thiruvidai Maruthur near Kumbakonam.. The credit also goes to the The Nagapattinam Police who formed three teams to investigate the case.
11. The robbery at Thiyagaraja Swamy temple at Thirukkuvalai took place as suggested by a theory put forward by Kerala Police in 2012.
12. The kerala police theorized that some specific gang was involved in the theft and they had been lifting the idols since they believed 'that the water, milk and honey used to anoint the idol have healing powers'.
The hardcore idol lifters took advantage of Failed burglar alarm in the sanctum and lack of CCTV camera on the temple premises
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/58030084.cms?
 Lingam of Thiyagaraja Swamy temple ,Thirukkuvalai,TN - What is special about it. ){kind=link}