The Hindu : Karnataka News : `Acharya should not have been insulted'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

`Acharya should not have been insulted'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, NOV. 25. The demand for allowing the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, to perform religious duties by shifting him from jail and placing him under house arrest received support from an unexpected quarter: Sri Veerabhadra Channamalla Swami of Nidumamidi Peetha in Bagepalli taluk of Kolar district, who is known for his radical views and campaign against certain mathadipathis.

He alleged that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa "stage-managed" the drama (the seer's arrest) keeping the Dravidian vote bank in mind as her party, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), was humbled in the Lok Sabha elections.

Participating in a meet-the-press programme at the Press Club of Bangalore, the swamiji criticised the Tamil Nadu Government for allegedly insulting the Kanchi seer and the math, and ignoring the long traditions of the math. However, he said Sri Jayendra Saraswathi should abdicate in favour of his junior, if the charges against him were proved. He supported the statement issued by some of the leading mathadipathis in the State who met at the Shankar Math on Wednesday and said the swamiji should not have been "insulted" nor "his religious feelings hurt".

`Fundamentalists'

The swamiji said 90 per cent of religious leaders, whether they were Hindu, Christian or Muslim, were fundamentalists. A large percentage of them deserved to be prosecuted and imprisoned.

On the Udupi Sri Krishna Math controversy, he demanded that the Government take over all temples, churches and mosques in the country, if they were getting public money.

Kanaka Dwara

He alleged that Sri Vishvesha Tirtha Swamiji of Pejawar Math had performed a volte-face by forming a committee with representatives of different castes to rebuild the Kanaka Gopura. According to him, Sri Visvesha Tirtha, who had ranged himself against the seven other Udupi mathadipathis, had allegedly succumbed to pressure from orthodox Brahmins. The swamiji said that the Kanakana Kindi in the Krishna Temple was created by the Brahmins and not by God as claimed by them. The Shudras, who were not being allowed into the temple, were allowed to view the deity from an aperture in a door, which had been closed. The main door of the sanctum sanctorum should be opened and renamed Kanaka Dwara to restore the respect given to Kanakadasa, the Kuruba saint and composer of divine music, by Sri Vadiraja Swami.

Film industry protest

The Nidumamidi Swamiji criticised the Kannada film industry's protest as selfish and asked whether film personalities showed any sympathy when farmers committed suicide or when industrial workers lost their jobs for reasons such as globalisation.

A. Jayaram, president of the club, spoke.

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