People And Their Problems

New Delhi, 13 January 2007

Cauvery As A Garland!

Atheist Statue in Temple Complex

By Bobby Srinivas

When we think of a garland, we think of flowers.  Flowers in a string to be put round eager, receptive and willing necks of proud politicians! Time was when garlands were meant for temple deities.  And as a concession it was allowed for brides and bridegrooms at the marriage ceremony as var-maala, since ‘marriages are made in heaven,’ the couple are led to believe they exchange garlands in the ‘presence of the Lord.’ In recent times garlands are totally appropriated by politicians who consider themselves equal to the Lord!

In this connection it is interesting to go to the present events in a town called Srirangam in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu.  Not many in the North may have heard of Srirangam, a riparian island in the River Cauvery, off Trichy or Tiruchirapally, the new name for Trichinopoly, the name given by the British administration.  Srirangam derives its name from Lord Vishnu as Ranganathaswamy in reclining pose (Ananthasayanam) in the famous temple on the island. 

Since, the temple is on an island in the River Cauvery, the river water flows on all the sides of the temple like an aquatic garland.  For the devout this is an allegory of the Lord blessing the temple by a garland of the holy river itself.  Therefore, again for the devout, Cauvery becomes as holy as the Ganga.

The temple has an ancient history. There are also various shrouded legends about the temple.  One is that Ravana’s brother Vibhishana upon being anointed as king of Lanka conceived the idea of a temple for the Lord on the island.  The temple administration had some years ago set an example of communal harmony and national integration!  For daily worship, a Muslim Chinna Maula Saheb played the nadaswaram (a pipe instrument like shehnai) in the sanctum sanctorum. 

Maula rendered divine music with deep devotion.  Some compared Chinna Maula to the legendary shehnai player Bismillah Khan.  When a few ‘staunch’ devotees questioned a Muslim playing in the holy precincts, Hindu religious pontiffs, to whom the matter was referred, declared that vidwans like Maula are above man made religions. 

Srirangam is a small town and an important Vaishnav Kshetra, like Guruvayur in Kerala, Balaji in Andhra Pradesh, Nathdwara in Rajasthan, and Mathura in U.P. and so on.  This small town has other temples too like the Shiva temple dedicated to Sri Jambukeswara.  The sanctum in this temple has a perennial spring of water keeping the stone floor continuously damp and wet which devotees claim as divine blessing of the Lord.  Srirangam is just a temple city with no other tangible activity.  The shopkeepers and other small business cater to the devotees thronging to visit the temple or for the families permanently settled or residing in this small religious temple town.  This then is Srirangam.

Now comes the recent interesting event---a flutter in the tranquility surrounding the serene temple town.  The DMK political leadership backed by their Government in Tamil Nadu has erected a cement concrete statue of their revered leader Periyar Ramaswamy Naicker at the entrance to the Ranganathaswamy temple.  Before the formal inauguration or exposition of the statue some miscreant appears to have disfigured the statue.   And the militant cadre of the DMK has let loose mayhem of protests and agitation claiming the sanctity of their respected leader has been blemished.  It is something like the statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar in Kanpur being disfigured and parts of Maharashtra set on flames.

Periyar (respected and revered elder) Ramaswamy Naicker may be said to be the father of the Dravidian movement of Tamil Nadu.  Originally, member of the pre-independence Congress, he started the group named ‘self-respecting’ party to halt what he called the ‘dominance’ of Brahmins in the political activities albeit under British colonial administration of Madras Presidency.  It was believed in those days that he had been set up or had the blessings of the British to thwart the burgeoning Congress agitation for India’s independence.  Many Brahmins were in the forefront of the freedom movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi. 

Since the British in their divide-and-rule policy could not whip up Hindu-Muslim differences in the South, they found Brahmins as easy scapegoat for Brahmin vs. non Brahmin agitations.  The ‘self-respecting’ group became the Justice Party, a precursor to Dravida Kazhagam whose ideologue and supremo was Periyar Ramaswamy. The Dravida Kazhagam and Periyar were avowed self declared atheists. Ramaswamy Naicker was no doubt a rationalist; he was also offensively a denigrator of temples and idols.  He encouraged his followers to break idols, particularly of Ganesh in public places inciting riots and mayhem.  

In course of time, as it happens to political parties in India, Dravida Kazhagam or DK split with a new party DMK – Dravida Munnetra (forward) Kazhagam being formed under C.N.Annadurai.  Annadurai, later to become the first non-Congress chief minister of Tamil Nadu, did not approve of some of the policies of Periyar and formed the new party which came to power in Tamil Nadu under his leadership in the early sixties.  The DMK further split into two fiercely opposing camps – the DMK-led by M.Karunanidhi who heads the present Tamil Nadu government; and the other his arch rival AIDMK led by the redoubtable J.Jayalalithaa, a former chief minister. 

The original DK has now become irrelevant or at least ceased to be a political force in this southern State.  But the two warring DMK and AIDMK draw their inspiration from the DK and its ideologue Periyar Ramaswamy. It is paradoxical the DMK should erect a statue of an avowed temple hater and idol breaker at the entrance of a famed ancient Vaishnav temple in Srirangam.  This appears somewhat of a vengeful act.  It is something like a BJP ruled state government wanting to erect a Ganesh or Maruti statue near a masjid or a church!  If this Dravidian party wants to honor their great leader, there are better and more congenial places where they could display their veneration, such as the beaches, public parks, and important road junctions or even in the middle of the River Cauvery away from the Srirangam temple.

Tamil Nadu is full of ancient temples of great archeological beauty and importance.  With planning and forethought these could be used as tourist destinations and money spinners instead of foisting atheist bigotry on those who wish to venerate temples and deities.  In contrast neighboring Andhra Pradesh with fewer temples but with the world famous Tirupati-Balaji takes full advantage of the temples for harvesting revenue.  Balaji competes with the Vatican, for the world’s largest collection in offerings from the Faithful. 

Someone remarked that it is by a stroke of good luck that Tirupati was included in Andhra Pradesh instead of Tamil Nadu at the time of the States reorganization.  The DMK in Tamil Nadu is not likely to have given the same sanctified importance to this shrine. This statue installation game surely disturbs a hornets’ nest.  It also demonstrates politicians’ appetite to stride into domains “where angels fear to tread!”---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)