Govts leaving gods impoverished

Temples losing social, cultural and economic importance

“Naidu's take on spiritualism........... People are committing more sins. ......... Not just the temples, people are visiting mosques and churches for solace. Many would have gone insane, had there been no temples, mosques and churches". (Hans India, May 26, 2016). This is not far from truth.

More and more we experience corruption and dishonesty, the number of pilgrims increases. Very often the celebrity donors of diamond, gold, silver, money, etc, are, in course of time, found in ACB, CBI, ED and IT net.

Donations and charities for the temples are not a new invention. Srikrishnadevaraya, the most famous emperor of the mighty Vijayanagara Empire, was said to have climbed the Tirumala Hills many times and also installed a statue of his along with his wives. He also visited Srisailam three times and Ahobilam once.

There are nearly 400 inscriptions during his regime; out of them 63 in AP. There are about fifteen in AP during Praudha Rayala’s rule. Most of them speak about the donations of the rulers and their feudatories to the temples to mark some important occasions: royal marriage and birth; victory in a war; eradication of an infectious disease like Cholera or Small Pox, etc.

Some vassals and concubines of the rulers too had charitable disposition. One of the earliest inscriptions in Kannada of Krishnadevaraya is found in Gulyam near Alur in Kurnool district, dated Thursday, July 16, 1509 i.e., a few months after the coronation of the emperor.

The inscription reads: “One Narasaraju, a trusted lieutenant of Veerana Nayaka, Commander-in-chief of the Emperor, constructed Veerupaksha Temple, sanctum sanctorum, verandah, place to rest and performing rituals, dug a well, developed a mango garden. This apart, land in the Veerapasamudra village, yields of the mango garden in the village near the well, tax collected from the oil rotaries are allotted to the deity.

This endowment shall continue as long as the Siva’s (god) name is chanted on this planet.” Defending the temples as institutions of spiritual, social, cultural and economic importance, Nehru said: ‘It was the place of worship; it was the hospital; it was the school; it was the village court. In the hour of peril, it saved the people. It was everything for a village”.

The purpose of donations was not merely the maintenance of the temples and remuneration to the archakas and their assistants. In the hours of need like famine, the stored ration was distributed. It was akin to our public distribution system (PDS) and food security policy.

Such magnanimous mandates of the imperial rulers are violated by democratic governments. Temple lands are being bartered away for purposes other than those intended. On the pretext that the properties are not getting proper income, they are sold in a mockery of ‘pubic auction,’ and deals are to help ‘favoured ones.’

In the guise of industrialisation and development, temple are alienated to the industrialists on nominal price. It is just charity for the big bulls. One byline: fixed assets of the churches and the mosques are also being squandered over in identical manners. It is time instead of indulging in mudslinging against each other, the religious leaders stage a united effort to save their religious properties and save the gods from vandalism.

Raman Singh, the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, is a pioneer in the PDS. He found the link to the village granary through the ancient temple administration and followed the model. He tweeted: "The village temples and temple land grain were used for this purpose. Please bring back the practice." Modi replied: "CM Chhattisgarh told me that a quintal of rice has been kept with each Panchayat to ensure no one starved in the village, a good step." Almost 90% of the people in Chhattisgarh are covered under the scheme.

He is elected for the third term on the same plank. Next election is about 30 months away in December 2018. Yet he is preparing the ground on the same lines. “It is naive to preach philosophy to a hungry man,” said Swami Vivekananda. Hungry man does not bother about the source of his ration. No god makes any distinction on critical issues.

Modi is reported to have appreciated the Chhattisgarh scheme and urged all the State governments to emulate it. If implemented, Krishnadevaraya and his clan may shower their blessings from heaven on Modi and Raman Singh and those who follow it. Naidu who claims so many 'copyrights' for innovative schemes may well copy them with a new brand name to make the best use of the temple properties.

By K C Kalkura