In Muzrai temples, salams replaced by namaskara

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: With an eye on Hindu votes across the State, the ruling BJP Government has decided to change the nomenclature of certain sevas offered to the gods in temples governed by the Muzrai Department. Recently, certain Hindu right-wing organisations had demanded the State government to change the nomenclature of certain sevas offered to gods in different temples.

The organisations had mainly targeted the temples that were offering ‘Diwatige salam’, ‘Salam arathi’ and ‘Salam Mangalarathi’ as a mark of respect for former Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan, who had protected these places from enemy attacks.

Since then arathis in these temples have been performed in the name of ‘Salam Arathi’ and ‘Salam Mangalarathi’ not knowing that one day it would create a major controversy. The ‘Dharma Dangal’ started when a group of people affiliated to a right wing organisation questioned ‘Salam Arathi ’ , 'Salam Mangalarathi ’ and ‘Divatige Salam' to god sand goddesses in Srirangeri Sharadamba, Nanjangud Srikanteshwara, Srirangapatna Ranganatha Swamy Temple, Melukote Varadaswamy and other shrines which had been directly or indirectly benefited from Tipu Sultan.

Every day, these special sevas are offered in the morning, evening and before closing of temples for the day. In fact, so far no objections were made and it has been on smoothly for years. After the controversy erupted, Department of Muzrai woke up to the demand and pressure mounted to do away with this system keeping in view the vote bank in the coastal areas of Dakshina Kannada,Udupi and Uttara Kannada district, Bagalkote, Vijayapura and other strongholds of BJP.

Since the Department cannot take a unilateral decision, the subject was placed before the endowment committee chaired by Muzrai Department Shashikala Jolle. After protracted discussion, the committee decided to change the nomenclature of those three sevas but not cancel them as it may hurt the sentiments of a section of devotees.

According to Minister Jolle, the new names for these three sevas will be ‘Divatige Namaskara’ in place of ‘Divatige Salam’, ‘Salam Namaskara’ to ‘ Arathi Namaskara’ and ‘Salam Mangalarathi’ to ‘Mangalarathi Namaskara’. A circular has been issued to all Muzrai temples concerned that the new orders must be implemented with immediate effect.

However, this was vetoed by the senior officials of the Endowment Committee and ‘Agama Pundits’. According to sources, by doing this the BJP government has succumbed to pressure of the right wing Hindu outfits that were alienated from the saffron party since Praveen Nettaru was brutally murdered in Udupi district.

Nettaru was an activist of Bajrang Dal and the government’s failure to protect the lives of Hindu activists had irked thousands of BJP workers in the coastal areas. So in order to win back their confidence, the government has done this no matter it may invite a barrage of attacks from the opposition parties.