Seeing a lot of tweets on priesthood and temples. I have decided to record a very recent incident I was party to. I had the opportunity to offer prayers to my kuladevi Gangai Amman, of whom we learned after quite an effort, in our village which is just outside Tindivanam. (1/n)
The Amman was retrieved from the pond and used to be offered pashu bali and catered to by an Old Pandaram family (village temple priest) belonging to the Vanniya Gounder caste. I happened to visit the place last month to make some donations for the Adi festival and explore (2/N)
Possibilities of reviving pashubali that my family used to sponsor (but would never partake of for obvious reasons) during Adi Perukku. I learned that the old Pandaram is no more and that his sons are no longer interested in catering to temple service. (3/n)
But I was surprised to see that the temple (actually a sack with the devi placed inside it) was well maintained and catered to. I learned from my family acquaintances that they have appointed an "Iyeru" (A brahmin priest) to take of the Shiva and Varadaraja Shrines (4/n)
Who has now taken additional responsibilities for the two Amman shrines (the other being Draupadi Amman, the very identity of Vanniyars revolves around her) as traditional Pandaram families no longer are willing to do it. This priest had retired from government service (5/n)
And was happy to carry on this as a.post retirement service. I had approached the old widow of the late Pandaram. She was very apologetic and chided her sons for ignoring the Devi but it was clear there was little she could do. I had even made a good (6/n)
Offer to the surviving son to atleast do pashubali on adi Perukku, as the brahmin priest could not, but he refused. It was as clear that they were prosperous and needed Money. Then came the cat out of the bag that he and his brothers, sons and nephews (7/n)
Don't attach any respect to the role of a Pandaram. Or rather don't see it as respectable. This, I learned, is the trend across Villupuram district. This is kot a state wide trend as there are numerous village temples that still thrive. But this is an emerging (8/n)
Problem that requires a solution. Respectability needs to be restored for paurahotiya be it in so called mainstream temples or village ones. That is the real problem. Landed caste people going "will you allow me inside the garbha gruha?" On Twitter sounds wrong in this context.
Didn't need money*
