Ramana Deekshitulu vs TTD

It all started when Ramana Deekshitulu held a press conference at Chennai pointing out certain lapses in the functioning of TTD. He chose Chennai as the venue for the press conference instead of Tirupati since he felt Tirupati media is committed to Naidu’s government and hence may not give a proper coverage to his press conference. 

Chennai press conference got wide coverage both in the national and the vernacular media. The response from TTD was swift and surgical. Quoting an old circular, they applied the principle of 65 years as retirement age and retired Ramana Deekshitulu along with some other Pradhana Archakas who have already completed 65 years. In fact, they were past 70 by the time TTD chose to apply this principle to retire them.

The Tirumala shrine known as Vada Vengadam (the hill on the northern border) in ancient Tamil literature is an important religious and spiritual centre for the Hindus. There are certain kainkaryams (religious duties) unique to this temple developed over a period of time. Some of them claim their authority to the Puranas and some others to certain non-historic events that happened a long time back. 

The most ancient among them is the kainkaryam of Sannidhi Golla. As per puranas, when Lord Vishnu came to the earth in search of his consort, Goddess Lakshmi, he was resting in an ant hill on the Seshachalam hills. A cow from the herd daily used to go and empty its milk on the anthill as food for the lord. 

One day when the cowherd saw this he threw a stick at the cow which hit the lord who came out to save the cow. The lord got angry with the Yadava first but when he prayed for his mercy he gave him the boon that he and his descendants would be the first ones to have a darshan when he manifests himself on the same hills in the avatar of Lord Venkateswara in Kaliyuga. 

This is known as the Sannidhi Golla Kainkaryam where the descendants of the Yadava open the temple door and have the first darshan of the lord. Another kainkaryam which is as old as the temple is Archakatva kainkaryam. Lord appeared in the dream of a priest Gopinath and indicated to him where the idol was on the hills and ordered him to worship the same. Accordingly, he located the idol and started the worship. 

At present, four families claiming descent from Gopinath perform the Archakatva Kainkaryam as per Vaikhanasa tradition in the temple. They are Gollapalli, Pydipalli, Peddinti and Tirupatamma families. Bhagavat Ramanuja Charya who visited the temple at the invitation of the then Yadava king in the 11th century systematised some of the existing traditions, and formulated new ones for the proper functioning of the temple. He recognised the right to archakatwam as it existed already. 

In addition, he gave the duty of fetching the water from Akasha Ganga for the daily rituals to his maternal uncle Tirumala Nambi who was already residing at Tirumala. He gave the duty of raising flower gardens to supply flowers to the Lord to Anantha Alwar, his favourite disciple who by then relocated himself at Tirumala as per his orders. 

He instituted the Jeeeyar system to oversee the proper performance of the rituals and also assist the archakas in performing their duties. Thus whereas other kainkaryams are formalised by Bhagavad Ramanuja Charya in the 11th century,  Sannidhi Golla Kainkaryam and Archakatva Kainkaryam are beyond history and claim their authority to either Puranas or legends associated with the Lord himself. 

Over a period of time,  a number of other kainkaryams also developed. These kainkaryams got converted as Mirasi when they were being paid a share in the income of the temple in certain proportion for the services rendered. It is this Marasi system which was abolished in 1987. By the time of its abolition in 1987 there were 56 Mirasis performing different duties in the temple starting from Yamunottari Mirasi whose duty was to tie the garlands for the lord and Muggu Mirasi who swept the temple premises and made ornamental decorations in the temple premises.

Before the abolition of the Mirasi system, these four archaka families were performing archakatwam in turns of one year for each family. They were also responsible for the safety of the ornaments. In a way, the tradition here is similar to the tradition at Udupi Sri Krishna temple where not just archakatwam but the management is rotated between different mathams. After the abolition of Mirasi system, the senior most archakas, one each for the family, are designated as chief priests of the temple. It is these chief priests who have crossed 65 years whom TTD now retired.

Archakatva kainkaryam by its very name signifies an opportunity to serve the lord with total devotion and dedication. There cannot be an artificial retirement age like in other secular employment for kainkaryams. Hence, applying this artificial retirement age of 65 to dispense with the services of the priests may not be correct on moral and religious grounds. 

Further, these priests are not paid any scales of pay and given promotions and post-retirement benefits. In such a situation without the benefits of regular employment and all the comforts that go with it, to apply the condition of retirement age only does not stand to reason and fairness. It is not known why governments which do not interfere with the service conditions of Imams and pastors are keen on fixing a retirement age for priests only. This goes against the very principle of equality of treatment between different religions. Telugu Desam Party in its election manifesto for the 2014 elections has unequivocally declared that there will be no retirement to archakas. This decision of TTD is exactly opposite of what is proclaimed by the party in its election manifesto.

Implication of this decision for the priests working in small temples is going to be disastrous. They perform their duties on a meagre remuneration without any pension and other benefits. There was a move to regulate their service conditions by framing service rules but somehow this government, contrary to its declaration in election manifesto to take care of their problems, has been very insensitive to their problems in implementation and the aforementioned GO is yet to see the light of the day.

In the normal course of administration, if there are certain serious shortcomings found in the functioning of any of the priests or other functionaries, TTD or the government which controls it is free to take action following the due process. But when issues are raised about maladministration of serious nature, instead of answering them properly after a proper enquiry, TTD thought it fit to retaliate by terminating the services of the chief priest.

It is relevant to mention here the recommendations of the PVRK Prasad Committee which was set up to examine the decision-making process in TTD consequent upon demolition of the Thousand Pillar Temple. The committee made a reference to the fine balance that was existing earlier in the administration of the temple among different institutions of the temple – the archaka vyavastha, jeeyar system and the administration – which is getting diluted of late. 

The TTD Board consisting of members of questionable character and integrity is becoming all powerful for the temple administration, functioning more as an extended arm of the government, more particularly the Chief Minister’s office. This type of a skewed system administration is not in the best interests of the institution. It is but appropriate that TTD goes back on this decision to terminate the services of the chief priest by applying an artificial retirement age before the courts of law interfere in the issue, and also comprehensively get the issues raised by Ramana Deekshitulu inquired into and put in place corrective steps, if any as required.