The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department is in the process of reviving the post of Tamil pundits or pulavars in temples.
HR&CE Minister P.K. Sekarbabu said the pundits who were appointed 21 years ago with the aim of propagating the meaning of religious texts, hymns and practices among devotees in temples, had been deployed for other works like writing accounts and selling tickets in counters.
“They have not been able to do their job for 10 years now. They also double up as librarians, since the library contains religious texts. We have conducted a refresher course for around 50 of them, and are planning to recruit more to fill vacancies,” he said.
A refresher course was conducted for these pundits, in which experts told them to read texts and update their knowledge of rituals performed in temples. “The various practices of Hinduism were founded with a scientific basis. They should be understood properly and taken to the next generation,” one of the speakers at the workshop said.
Among the duties of the pulavars is to explain how Kumbabhishekam can be conducted in Tamil, as the Alwars have said. They have to give religious discourses during crowded days, conduct classes for children on texts including Thirumurai and Pasurams and clarify any doubts that devotees have, said a pulavar at a temple, who is looking forward to resuming his duties. The pulavars need to have at least a diploma in Tamil literature.
