Paryaya Mahotsava likely to be low-key affair

Udupi: Paryaya Mahotsava, the biennial event in the temple city of Udupi on January 18, is likely to be a low-key affair as night curfew will be in force until 5 a.m. on January 19.

Paryaya Darbar at Rajangana Hall where all the seers of the Udupi Ashtamutts (8 monasteries) may also be staged as a low-key occasion, according to sources in the Sri Krishnapura Matha Paryaya Mahothsava Committee. As the the third wave of Covid has set in, Sri Vidyasagara Theertha Swamiji wants the Paryaya to be a simple event, according to Vishnuprasad Padigar, the committee's secretary. Sri Vidyasagara Theertha is currently Ashta Mutt's most senior seer. For the fourth time, he will ascend the Paryaya peetham (also called Sarvanjna peetham) in the wee hours of 18 January.

What is Paryaya?

Since the 13th century, when philosopher saint Madhwacharya consecrated Krishna's image on what is now a car street and anointed eight Yathis (ascetics) to give poojas to Udupi's presiding deity, the tradition of Paryaya has continued without interruption. During the time of Sode Vadiraja Swamiji, the two-month term was extended to two years to allow the Yathis more space and time to devote themselves to the temple's duty. Phalimaru, Pejavara, Adamaru, Puthige, Sode, Kaniyuru, Shirooru, and Krishnapura were chosen from eight mutts (Ashtamutts). Madhwacharya may have set the Paryaya system in order somewhere in the later half of the eighth century.