Expressnews
Chennai, February 2025
Chennai based Smart Creations, a pioneer in 24 KT gold plating for temples, livened up the annual car festival of Swayambhulinga Swamy temple in Uvari village, in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, with 500 kgs micro gold-plated chariot.
Every creation of Mantra stands a living testament to its meticulous craftsmanship and commitment to excellence for over twenty-five years and the recent golden chariot, a quintessential part of the temple heritage at the Swayambhulinga Swamy temple at Uvari in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, is no different! Adorned with intricate and exquisite carvings of deities, mythical animals like yaalis and makaras, figurines of real animals, ganas, dancers and decorative floral motifs, the golden chariot weighs 500 Kilograms and measures 16 feet in height, one of the tallest chariots designed with Nano Tech Golden/ (Gold) Deposition(NTGD) technology.
Speaking on Smart Creation’s yet another significant contribution in upgrading temples to Golden temples, Mr Pankaj Bhandari, the CEO said, “Tamil Nadu has a long tradition of using intricately built temple cars to carry deities on the streets during annual festivals and we, at Smart Creations are extremely delighted to have handcrafted yet another golden marvel, a temple car (chariot), for one of the ancient Shiva temple, the Swayambhulinga temple at Uvari in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. Our seasoned traditional artisans and gold smiths, about 25 of them with their unparalleled artistic skills in micro gold plating and versatility in varying styles, turned the chariot from the ordinary to the extraordinary, with divine precision in about 8 to 9 months’ time duration. The team followed a systematic approach of a detailed assessment of the chariot’s condition before they began the process of micro gold plating. This included non-invasive methods like identification of damages, documentation of the deteriorations present, studying the original construction techniques and materials used. Based on this study the team opted for a micro gold plating technology that not only safeguards the chariot against extreme weather conditions, but also provides high quality, durability and purity that will last for years to come”.
“Till date, Smart Creations has helped 7800 temples save gold worth Rs 4800 Crores”, he added.
The gold plated chariot has been donated to the temple by the families of Shri P.K.S.T.Radhakrishnan, the Temple Dharmakartha and Dr. M.A.C.S.R. Surendran of Shenbagam Hospitals, Madurai.
