Residents Took The Initiative To Clean The 500 Years Old Temple In Karnataka And Urged Governmental Help For Restoration

The residents of Varur, Dharwad, have banded together to renovate a 500-year-old temple that has been deteriorated for decades. The people completed a partial restoration of the temple in the centre of Varur village in honour of World Heritage Week 2021. The site is around 18 kilometres from Hubballi's city centre, and the people are now pleading with the government to act and restore the temple to its previous magnificence.

The temple houses a Siddarameshwara deity and features distinctive pillars in the centre. For a long period of time, the temple grounds were utilised as a storage facility for agricultural commodities and other grains, but the efforts of the residents are helping the temple in restoring its original shape. The Panchayat office is directly behind the shrine. A group of villagers cleaned and eradicated the weeds that had grown around the shrine last week. The pillars of the temple were also cleaned. According to the residents, there are various abandoned monuments and sculptures that the government must restore in order to protect the village's heritage.

Pavan Miskin, a social activist and resident of Varur village explained that the locals have petitioned the Panchayat to organize a committee to undertake the restoration work of Siddarameshwara temple. The magnificent temple has been ignored by officials and residents for a long time. Several stone inscriptions have fallen in various locations around the temple. They are requesting that the authorities recover them and return them to the temple grounds. However, a history enthusiast, Swaminathan Natarajan also highlighted that various temples and monuments in north Karnataka require immediate restoration.

A Varur villager stated that several families are active in prosperous agriculture, and the town is close to a city centre. The town is well-known for its agricultural products and proximity to Hubballi. However, the true past of this community remains a mystery. Some portions of the history of this hamlet can be traced back if the authorities interpret the stone inscriptions that are strewn around the temple.