NAMAKKAL: After the late AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa, it's her rival and DMK patriarch M

's turn to get a temple.

But what's different is that Karunanidhi was a self-proclaimed atheist and a towering personality who propagated rationalist ideals, unlike Jayalalithaa, who was a believer.

The temple to be built in honour of Karunanidhi, though, will be called 'Temple of Rationality' (pagutharivu alayam). Bhoomi puja for the temple to come up at Kuchikadu village in

was performed on Sunday. The initiative was taken by Arunthathiyars, a scheduled caste community of Kuchikadu.

"It was man who invented God, a supernatural power that can give us what fellow human beings cannot. For us, it was Kalaignar who gave us something which only God could have given," said K Chinnasamy, president of the Arunthathiyar Munnetra Peravai. Chinnasamy was referring to the 3% job quota exclusively for the Arunthathiyars within the 18% quota for SCs introduced by Karunanidhi in 2009.

It was a big push for the Arunthathiyars who are still at the bottom of the social pyramid and often discriminated even by other dalit communities. Most Arunthathiyars, who largely live in Tamil

's western belt, continue to do menial jobs. "It was only because of the job quota that our children could dream of becoming engineers and doctors," said Chinnasamy.

Members of the Arunthathiyar community in Kuchikadu say they had decided to build a temple on the day Karunanidhi passed away. Since then, they had been mobilising funds and had recently bought a parcel of land. "We are going to make the temple as big as possible. We would form a trust, appoint office bearers and start collecting funds," said Pon Nallathambi, former president of Pattanam town panchayat where Kuchikadu is located.

For now, the estimate for the temple is Rs 30 lakh, Nallathambi said.

Design for statue not finalised yet

It would have a life size statue of Karunanidhi made of stone, besides a library, a park and historical documents about the contribution of Karunanidhi to the community.

“We haven’t finalised the design for the statue. It would either be a posture of Kalaignar speaking or writing, said Thavamani, a villager.

But there will be no priests or rituals. The villagers say there will be just two celebrations – the birth and death anniversaries of the leader.

DMK functionaries in the district who heard about the initiative have promised total support for the initiative.