{"id":83219,"date":"2026-01-19T15:42:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=83219"},"modified":"2026-01-20T16:38:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T11:08:29","slug":"umbilo-shree-ambalavaanar-alayam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/umbilo-shree-ambalavaanar-alayam\/","title":{"rendered":"Umbilo Shree Ambalavaanar Alayam"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Umbilo Shree Ambalavaanar Alayam Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 151-year-old Umbilo Shree Ambalavaanar Alayam temple in Durban, a national monument, faces potential discontinuation of civic services due to a pending bill amid fraud allegations.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Umbilo Shree Ambalavaanar Alayam<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>Hindu temple <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">located in <\/span><b>Durban, South Africa.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Built in 1875<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it was <\/span><b>established by indentured labourers who arrived in Durban from India.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>oldest Hindu temple on the African continent.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also <\/span><b>known as the Cato Manor Second River Temple<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is situated on a hill amongst lush vegetation in Cato Manor.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple complex is <\/span><b>home to three deities &#8211;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>first temple,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> dedicated to <\/span><b>Lord Shiva,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is known as Ambalavaanar; the second in honour of the &#8216;mother&#8217;, is known as Sri Draupadi Alayam; and the third is the Phutu (Phutuvan) Temple.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>temple&#8217;s architecture<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reflects<\/span><b> traditional South Indian design, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">featuring intricate carvings and vibrant colors.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Over the years, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the temple has been <\/span><b>known as &#8216;the temple that refused to die&#8217; because of the many challenges it faced.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was <\/span><b>declared a National Heritage Site in 1980<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by the apartheid-era National Monuments Council.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.devdiscourse.com\/article\/entertainment\/3774060-historic-hindu-temple-in-durban-faces-financial-crisis-amid-fraud-allegations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DEVD<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Umbilo Shree Ambalavaanar Alayam is a Hindu temple located in Durban, South Africa. Read more about Umbilo Shree Ambalavaanar Alayam, Location, Deities, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":83181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,4825,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-83219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-umbilo-shree-ambalavaanar-alayam","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}