Please define dilapidated
Dear Naras Ji,
The problem here is not about 'funds'. If the Dhikshithars put out a clarion call out there to collect the funds from the Shaivites from around the Globe, they will receive that. I do not understand why they are not advertising their plight for the lack of funds! There is some weird internal politics going on.
Pranams,
KRS
On my recent vaction in India in 2005, I took on a pligrimage to the temples of Tamilnadu. We were on a package tour, and our first stop was Chidambaram.
The Dikshitars were very friendly, may be I was in veshti and thudu and my poonal was visible, and had my dharmapatni on my side ( man you get a lot of respect with wives in traditional dresses
).
There was a board that said "People should not enter the temple with Lungi, shorts etc), but I saw a bunch of noisy stinking people come out of a Tata Sumo, and most of them were scratching their b**** and had shorts and printed baniyan only. They entered the temple in this kolam, and nobody objected. The whole atmospher of the temple was kinda disturbed...may be this is waht you mean by dilapidate state of the society or the temple.
There are multiple dhikshitas in the main part of the temple, and the fee was Rs50 to enter the main part. One young eager dhikshitar took me inside and gave individual attention ( value for money and customer service). He explained the Chidambara Ragasiyam, the concept of Sabhais, the concept of Nataraja himsled, and and took around 25 minutes to finish the lecture. It was thorough and any marketing professional would learn from them.Then he brought us out respectfully, and explained that Chidambaram temple is not a gov. controlled temple and funds are needed to maintain the temple, and he was telling the various schemes they had in place. Before asking for money, he also asked for our feedback and wanted to know if we require any additional information.
One more important thing he stressed was, " we are not after money....we are after contacts. if you are willing to participate, please give your address, and one of us would come to your house and collect money, but we will be happy if you can introduce us to more willing people".
I wanted to know about the pradosha poojai or some scheme and he said it would take Rs400 for 6 months, which sounded reasonable.
But since I wanted the money to be donated by my father, as I dont want to be like munthiri kottai, I promised him, next time I would visit the temple with my father, I would pay the money he wanted. I still had a tiny streak of element of doubt about parting with the money. So, I did not give him the address, and parted his company.
We come outside, the tour guide says, we can have food in the local hotels and proceed further.
We had food and came outside, and the bus has left without us. As per the tour plan, the next stop was Vaitheeswaran temple, so we decided to hire a cab and catch up the bus, as it was very important for me to see all the temples. We approached a cab and explained the driver that we have to reach Vaitheeswaran koil to catch up with the bus.
He said , "It would take Rs400 to take you there". Anybody would know that for Rs400 we can travel much farther...but I was shocked at the number. Since I did not have any choice, I took the cab. He dropped us at the famous Vaitheeswaran temple, next to the stupid tour bus. I paid him off and requested a receipt....and when he signed the receipt, he has signed in tamil as "Vaithyanathan". I was kinda shocked seeing all these coincidences. After we had a darshan and got in the bus, my wife started kadichifying my ear..."onnu gavanichela....anga Rs 400 kettaanga, ingayum athaye kettar"...then I added to her surprice by showing his signature.
)).
Well coming to the temple itself, it can be clearly seen that people of other castes also work in the temple at various levels. and people of other castes also had darshan in the main part of the temple.
The ceilings are intact and the paintings were fresh. I did not see any leprosy afflicted pond, may be I did not have enough time to explore, and even if it looks like leprosy afflicted, it is mainly because, people shit on the banks of the pond and wash their cloths and filthy a***.
The temple itself is big, and it might take atleast a day or two to enjoy the greatness.
Coming to the point of dikshitas themselves, I was told they live as a close society, and there is a saying the " THillai ponnu ellaya thanda maatta", which my mother interpreted as , they dont marry outside their caste. Obviosly, I did not want to marry "only" a Dikshita girl, just to prove her false
), and nullify the caste structure.
I can also say, they are very knowledgable and cohesive. They may or may not have a formal education, but obviously, they know that contacts are very important.
On our previous visit to Chidambaram, I was a kid, and there were no hotels availalbe, so one dikshitar took three of us (mom, dad, and me the baby) to his home and made all the arrangements. I still remember the hot dosais and chutney maami fed me, and to top it all he did not accept any money from my father. He told us he is a professor in the Annamalai university.
