Ramana Deekshitulu back as Agama Advisor in TTD

Tirupati: In a significant development, the TTD on Tuesday appointed retired chief priest AV Ramana Deekshitulu as Agama Advisor. As an additional responsibility, Deekshitulu has been given the responsibility to train young archakas.

The TTD has also decided to reinstate his two sons as archakas in Tirumala temple. They (Venkatapati Deekshitulu and Rajesh Deekshitulu) were transferred to Sri Govindaraja Swamy temple last year.

It was also decided to provide re-entry into Srivari temple to four chief priests, who retired from service last year. With this, they can enter the temple at any time on par with regular archakas.

It may be noted that the removal of hereditary archakas has kicked up a major controversy last year when the decision was taken by the Trust Board led by Putta Sudhakar Yadav. The board has also removed Ramana Deekshitulu as Agama Advisor and appointed Venugopala Deekshitulu in his place.

All hereditary archakas working in other temples and various Hindu organisations have demanded withdrawal of the decision. Ramana Deekshitulu has fought against it and aired his resentment on the government and met then Opposition leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy seeking his support.

The YSRCP has supported the demand of hereditary archakas and Jagan has made it clear during his electioneering that the rights of such priests will be protected after coming into power.

As retired priests expressed their disappointment over the delay, TTD Trust Board chief YV Subba Reddy announced that a committee will be constituted to review and present a report on the hereditary priests' issue.

Following this, TTD's latest decision assumed significance. It was almost one and half a year since Ramana Deekshitulu and others retired from the service of the TTD. Since then, he did not enter the temple.

With the present decision of the TTD, along with Ramana Deekshitulu, the other three chief priests Narasimha Deekshitulu, Seshachala Deekshitulu and Srinivas Deekshitulu will get re-entry into the temple. However, the TTD did not specify their role and whether they can perform Srivari rituals also along with other priests.