The Temples Protection Movement (TPM) has welcomed the amendment made to the Endowments Act to restore the hereditary rights of the ‘Sannidhi Golla’, a traditional system as part of which a Yadava family is bestowed with the rights to open or close the main threshold (Mahadwaram) of Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala.
“Other than the Archakas, there are many other servitors. The temple under the purview of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is where centuries-old legacies were thoughtlessly destroyed in 1987,” alleged TPM convener Chilkur Rangarajan, who is also the functional head priest of Chilkur Balaji temple in Hyderabad.
Mr. Rangarajan, who was in Tirumala for pilgrimage on Wednesday, stressed the need for reviving hereditary offices such as Nayee Brahmanas (hair tonsurers of Kalyanakatta) and saint-poet Annamacharya’s successors who sing his compositions at the temple.
He equated the ‘Kainkaryam’ to a ‘matter of faith’, which was abolished through an amendment to the Endowments Act in 1987, thus reducing it to a ‘job’. “There can be no retirement to such services and those should be performed,” he observed.
