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In the late70's a small group of
like minded people pondered about having a temple in atlanta. Drs.S.P. Reddy,
B.K. Mohan, Shailendra and Hari Upadhyaya met on a few occassions and felt that
there should a temple in Atlanta. In 1982 (on new year's eve) during post
dinner chat at Dr. Vanapalli's house several members heard each others' views.
Drs. Vanapalli, S.I. Naidu, I.J. Reddy and S.K. Naidu agreed to join in the
effort. A quiet campaign commenced and Drs. Aruna Prasad, Raghava Reddy,
Dronavalli, Mani, Kulkarni, Palghat Mohan and Kuppuswamy were on board. After
initial deliberations and after visiting Nashville temple which was then
located in a small house, a decision was made to proceed with the project. We
thoght we each can contribute $10,000 and we can acomplish this goal, happily
pray and provide a place of worship for our community and our children.
Naivity? You bet. We searched for land and looked at five different pieces of
land. Decided on current property because of its elevation and proximity to
highways and biways. Fifteen of us bought the land from Mrs Jewel P. Quinn for
the temple. The land was zoned for temple, thanks to philanthropic minded
chairman honorable Charles Griswell and his excellent team of county
commissioners.
Then we realized that the funds we thought were adequate, were only spent on
buying the land itself. Dr.S.P. Reddy, Dr. Vanapalli and others actively worked
on raising funds. The enthusiasm in the community and generous donations made
us forge ahead with the project.
The Hindu Temple of Atlanta was incorporated on October 19th
1984
Very early in the project Sri
Sampatkumar bhattar and temple architect Padmasri Muthiah stapathi were
consulted and the planing for the temple has begun.
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