The Hindu : Devotees throng temples in rural areas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Devotees throng temples in rural areas

By S. Dorairaj

MADURAI, FEB. 21. "We are immensely relieved now as the nearly seven month-old ordeal has come to an end. We can revive the practice of offering goats and fowls to Pandi Muneeswarar, Andi and Samayakaruppu at this ancient temple as a mark of fulfilment of our vow to the deities," several devotees who thronged the Pandi Muneeswarar temple on the city outskirts said today. They welcomed the State Government's move to lift the ban on sacrifice of animals and birds in temple precincts.

Though the message is yet to reach many villages in Madurai, Tiruchi, Virudhunagar, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Dindigul and Pudukottai districts, devotees have already started thronging the Pandi temple, along with few birds and goats to continue with the age-old practice adopted in hundreds of rural temples in the southern districts.

"The flow of devotees from far and near started dwindling close on the heels of the Government's ban clamped on August 29. Almost 50 per cent of the 100-odd stalls selling puja materials in the temple complex had to wind up. All the 11 private marriage halls near the temple also remained closed," H. Sardar, owner of a flower shop, said.

"The sheds put up by butchers were dismantled and the owner of the site had planted saplings there," said K. Sabur Maideen, who took care of the parking lot.

P. Sivaji Poosari, one of the trustees, claimed that most of the devotees from rural areas sacrificed animals or birds at the shrine only as a token of their `Nerthi kadan' (thanksgiving), which, if not fulfilled, was construed as unpardonable. Unfortunately, thousands of devotees, including childless couples seeking the deity's grace to bless them with children, unmarried persons pleading for finalising elusive weddings and people seeking solution to family problems, who had hitherto been keeping away from the temple, could now sacrifice animals or birds, he said.

Ten thousand people including nomadic tribes — Sholagas and Narikoravas — living in Kammapatti, Pandi Nagar, Seeman Nagar, Karuppayurani and Sakkimangalam depended on the temple for their daily bread. The devotees, who thronged in large numbers on Sundays, Fridays and Tuesdays along with their family members on occasions of christening their children and ear-piercing ceremony, organised community feasts prepared with the carcasses returned to them after performing the sacrifice, he said.

In all, 300 butchers, who chop off skin and debone the meat for a small fee, are happy at the Government's announcement on lifting of the ban. Earlier, an average of 200 goats were sacrificed on Fridays and Sundays and around 100 animals on Tuesdays, he said.

The devotees by and large were happy over lifting of the ban but owed an explanation to the public why the ban was clamped seven months ago and on what grounds it was lifted now, said A.S.R. Swaminathan of Thogaimalai in Karur district. "There is every reason to attribute political motive to the Government's decision as it has been made on the eve of the Lok Sabha poll," he said.

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