Acharya Sannidhi – For Preservation of Adi Sankara Nilayam
Adi Sankara Nilayam is privileged to be the very birth-home of Adi Sankaracharya. This millenials old property must be preserved for all times to come for it embodies the very spirit of Vedanta. Your contributions will go towards a permanent fund for the upkeep, restoration and maintenance of this invaluable legacy. This will be used to build a corpus fund for the maintenance of Adi Sankara Nilayam.
The property of Melpazhur Mana was acquired in February 1990 by the Chinmaya Mission: refurbished, repaired and renovated – but only superficially so that there is no change to the external structure. In line with Gurudev’s vision, the building will not be changed, the foundation will be retained, and the walls will not be altered. The designs and wood carvings will be kept intact and will remain the same. The roof will have to be changed periodically.
Over time, the sprawling campus has been renovated to its original style and glory. Today, CIF welcomes research scholars to its elegantly furnished reference library that houses over 20,000 books and 30 journal subscriptions. In addition, CIF has a meditation hall, residential quarters, kitchen and dining facilities, temples, prayer rooms, and serene spaces for solitude worship, reflection and self-study.
In February 2018, we restored the Kulapuramalika, a project that took approximately 4 months to complete. The last time it was restored was in 1990. Tiles were individually cleaned and placed back into position, all wooden teak carvings were polished, chips to the wood were sealed, tiles repolished and the entire building is now restored to its original glory. The project cost was nearly ₹15 lakhs (approx US$ 20000). The next big project that is about to commence is the ‘restoration’ of the Illom, the architectural beauty which is the birth home of Adi Sankaracharya. The estimated cost of the project is ₹1 crore rupees (approx US$ 140000).
