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Temple row comes to the fore in south TN

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

The administration says it is for cleanliness and hygiene, but the devout say it has violated tradition and custom.

A row in brewing in Nagercoil, down south in Tamil Nadu, over cement-flooring for the area surrounding the sanctum sanctorum. With the Hindutva forces pretty strong in the region, it also threatens to acquire political overtones.

The row began with the government-run temple administration laying cement flooring in the area around the sanctum of presiding deity Nagaraja, or 'snake god', after whom the town has been named. The area used to be sand-laden, and devouts, particularly those with political leanings, see 'deals' in the affair.

The main charge relates to the temple administration not seeking the advice and direction of the 'absentee-chief priest' of the temple, Sreedharan Tantri of native Namboodiri-Brahmin stock, from Pampamekode House, near Thrissur in Kerala. The Tantri family has been the visiting high priests of the Nagercoil temple for generations, and their say-so is required for all major and minor changes and celebrations.

When the administration found itself cornered on the issue, it claimed to have got the Tantri's clearance. But its bluff was called when Sreedharan Tantri was at Nagercoil recently, where he said he was not consulted. He even suggested a deva-prasna, or astrological predictions, to read the divine mind on the issue.

The administration says the cement-flooring meant that rotten eggs, the remnants of those offered by the devotees, would not spread a stink, particularly in the monsoon months. Nor would it weaken the foundations of the nearby walls over a period, as observed.

The devouts have this to say: one, the cement-flooring went against the tradition of not altering the sanctum area, ever since the presiding deity told the then local ruler, a beneficiary of the god's boon, to leave it alone in the fifteenth century. No basic alterations have been made to the sanctum area ever since, other than white- washing it, and changing the thatched roof once a year.

As the devouts point out, the main prasad of the temple is the 'pit-sand' from the immediate surroundings of the presiding deity which alternates between black and white shades every six months with no loss of quantity or moisture-content. Cement-flooring the temple, otherwise granite-built with Jain icons on the stone pillars, could change all this.

The devout, forming various organisations among themselves, have now taken up the issue with Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister Thamizhkudimagan. In private, they also see 'private deals', asking why the administration had to spread a layer of sand over the cement-flooring if it was convinced about its stand.

The issue may look inconsequential elsewhere, but in a town not far away from Mandaicadu, the venue of communal clashes in the early eighties that revived Hindu militancy in the district, it could spell trouble, both for political parties and the state administration. True, it may not blow up to those proportions, yes, but the BJP, which has been coming a close second to the Congress first, and the Tamil Maanila Congress, later, is not the one to lose an opportunity when one presents itself.

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