In an attempt to honour the last generation of the potters producing terracotta offerings of puddukottai district, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS) installed the largest Aiyanar complex inside its premises. At present, seven potters from Puddukottai district camping to maintain the Aiyyanar complex. They will also create an extended complex of terracotta idols for the Pottery Tradition of India.
Ayyanar is a Hindu village god of Tamil Nadu also worshipped by Sri lankan Tamils.It is also believed that whenever external factors worked in destroying people, the God in him helped them. He is primarily worshiped as a guardian deity who protects villages from external threats. The temples of Aiyanar are usually flanked by gigantic and colorful statues of him and his companions riding horses or elephants.
An Aiyanar temple, various clay figure and idols reflect the social hierarchy which exists in the villages of Tamil Nadu. The gods are ranked according to the social and economical hierarchy in the village, and as in social life, the highest ranking gods are vegetarian, whereas the lower ranking ones are non-vegetarian. A temple is often not a building, but one or more figures giving importance to each and every ancestral local god who are collections of people belonging to various community groups.
The IGRMS is organising special programme on the International Day of Yoga. On Tuesday June 21, 2017 at 9.30 am Yoga Gurus from Madhya Pradesh government Yoga Training Centre, Bhopal will impart training of Yoga Asanas and will deliver a brief lecture on merits of Yoga. After that all employees of the museum will practice Yoga at library of Manav Sangrahalaya.