Repatriation of the Thirumangai Alvar Statue

Repatriation of the Thirumangai Alvar Statue

In March 2026, a rare 16th-century bronze statue of the Vaishnavite saint Thirumangai Alvar was formally returned to India by the **Ashmolean Museum in the United Kingdom. The handover ceremony took place at the High Commission of India in London, marking another success in India’s ongoing efforts to recover stolen cultural artefacts. The idol had originally been stolen from the Shri Soundararaja Perumal Temple at Thadikombu in Tamil Nadu during the 1950s and was later acquired by the museum in 1967 through a Sotheby’s auction.

Thirumangai Alvar is revered as one of the twelve Alvar saints of the Sri Vaishnavite Bhakti tradition in South India. He lived in the 8th century CE and is known for his devotional poetry dedicated to Lord Vishnu. His compositions form a significant part of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, a collection of 4,000 Tamil hymns central to Vaishnavite theology. The saint is also associated with pilgrimages to several Divya Desams (sacred Vishnu temples) and is credited with contributing to the development of temple traditions in places like Srirangam.