Chidambaram temple and the Deekshidhar Community need Help
Dear Sri Nacchinarkiniyan Ji,
I for one though condemn the way the police went about this. There was no need for any scuffle and drama inside the temple and as the police was there and as they are clearly accountable and responsible to maintain order, they could have handled the situation totally in a different way.
On a different subject, who is responsible for the upkeep of the temple? Last time I visited (about 7 years ago), the temple was crumpling and Sivaganga sported a greenish brown look, with people defecating all around. Who gets the money to upkeep the temple?
Pranams,
KRS
Talking about the upkeep of the temple raises some basic questions. Families and communities who have owned temples have faced this problem of maintaining the temples. Even maths have faced this problem.
That is the main reason for the intervention of the state. But for the intervention of the state many old temples especially in Tamil Nadu would have fallen into ruins. As it is we have a number of very old temples which are in ruins.
Temples are maintained and run with the income from endowments. The kings and other patrons had given endowments for this purpose. The older endowments mostly consist of landed property. These lands were given to the tenants for cultivation. The temples also had uncultivated urban lands. Over the years most of the uncultivated lands have been usurped by others. This was made easier by the lack of proper records in most of the temples.
Recently it was discovered that the Simhachalam temple owns almost the entire Vizhakapatnam city. Meenakshi temple used to own most parts of Madurai.
The income of the temples till about 50 years back was mostly from cultivated lands. The land reforms which rightly favored the tenant cultivator affected the income from the cultivated lands. This has been discussed in many forums and articles.
When the income dried up the families and maths found it difficult to maintain the temples. The maths were in a better position because they had income from other sources and they had better organization. But the families were in a very bad state.
A standing example is the temple in Dakshineswar Bhavatharini Maa temple associated with Sri Ramakrishna. Rani Rashmoni the founder had left a lot of agricultural land for the temple. Unfortunately all these lands were in East Bengal now Bangla Desh. The temple was in a bad shape. But in the last few decades they have received contributions from rich Bengalis and westerners who are devotees and now the temple is in an excellent shape and is run well.
It may shock the Krishna devotees to know that in the seventies the Maharashtra government had issued a ration card in the name of Panduranga of Pandharpur. He was the head of the household with Rukmani the dependent wife. The government used to give a monthly quota of rice under the card for preparing daily prasad. The government could not do anything more as the temple was under the control of a particular family.
Please do understand the position of the families. I know personally some of the members of the family who were running the Pandharpur temple. I also know the family which is running the Kalighat temple.
Problems faced:
1. Increase in the number of members of the family/community. More people dependent of temple income.
2. Dwindling income because of the reasons mentioned above.
3. Increased expenditure on maintenance as the temple structure is very old.
I will stop here. In my next post I will show
1. How these factors have led to the present situation in Chidambaram temple.
2. Why we should help the Deekshidhar community ( who are unique and part of our culture and tradition).
3. How we can help the temple and the Deekshidhar community.
Let the power mongers continue with their agenda.