Diwali homecoming: Ram, Lakshman, Sita idols stolen from TN return after 42 years

TRIPLE DELIGHT: The idols are fine specimens of Vijayanagar style and were stolen in 1978

- Manimugdha Sharma

New Delhi: Three medieval-era bronze idols of Ram, Lakshman and Sita, stolen from a Tamil Nadu temple in the 1970s before surfacing in Britain recently, were handed over to the Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday, ending a quest that began 42 years ago.

These idols along with a fourth of Hanuman, belonging to the Sri Rajagopalaswamy Temple in Anandamangalam, Nagapattinam, were photographed and documented in 1958, and their record remained with the French Institute of Pondicherry since. But between November 23 and 24, 1978, all four idols were stolen.

The thieves were later caught, but by then the idols had changed hands and left the country. The Hanuman idol was traced to a museum in a Southeast Asian country, but the whereabout of the rest was unknown until three years ago when a private initiative called India Pride Project spotted the Ram statue while going through the website of British Association of Antique Dealers.