EPPING, N.H. (AP) – A New Year’s Eve fire that destroyed ancient texts at a Hindu temple in Epping has left members in mourning.
Among the items lost in the fire were a collection of handwritten prayers and mantras, some of which date from 30 to 40 B.C. A group of marble statues of gods and goddesses also were lost in the temple, named for the goddess Saraswati.
“There’s grief, there’s sadness, there’s loss,” the temple’s pandit, or director, Ramadheen Ramsamooj, said Friday.
The fire was caused by an electrical problem, the state Fire Marshal’s Office and the Epping Fire Department said Thursday. The Saraswati Mandiram Temple has been located near Route 27 in Epping since 1997.
The mantras, couplets in Sanskrit, contain knowledge for seekers and scholars, Ramsamooj said. Mantras, which originate in holy books, help people understand who they are in terms of the greater power, he said.
Ramsamooj said he has collected the texts since he was a teenager and had about 200 of them. The stacked, dark-brown sheets of paper were wrapped in red cloth and tied.
The fire was contained it to the main building’s two-story addition that included the upstairs temple and downstairs offices.
It did not spread to an adjoining auditorium that holds 250 people, where the temple will hold Sunday services. The services typically attract between 60 and 200 worshippers from southern New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Ramsamooj also the headmaster of an on-site school for 24 students in grades K-12, said this is a time to reflect on one of his faith’s basic philosophies emphasizing non-attachment to things of this life.
This isn’t easy, he said. “I preach it every day, and now I have to live it.”
AP-ES-01-03-04 1258EST
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