| Published on 24-01-2008 In National |
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| Udupi Math Debate: Should Swamijis go abroad? |
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Written by
A. Jayaram |
Karnataka and the country have been witness in the last one month to perhaps the most hotly contested religious debates in recent times and it is far from over. It is the one, which revolved round the ascension of one of the mathadipathis (heads) of the famous eight maths (Ashtamaths) of Udupi as the "Paryaya Swamiji" (Rotational head). In the ultimate, it is the rebel and non-conformist who had crossed the seas who has won, but the traditionalists or conformists have not acknowledged it.
Sri Sugunendrathirtha Swamiji of the Sri Puthige Math, one of the Ashtamaths has become the Paryaya head of the Udupi maths. He ascended the Paryaya Pitha amidst traditional religious éclat as also popular enthusiasm on the midnight of January 18/19.
Madhwacharya, the 13th century founder of the Madhwa or Dwaita school of Hindu philosophy, founded the eight Udupi maths. He established the Krishna temple or math in the temple town, which has become a district headquarters and is today well known for its educational institutions, banks and hoteliers. For centuries, the Udupi maths have been observing the tradition of rotational leadership (Paryaya) and the change occurs every two years. The eight maths are Pejawar, Admar, Palimar, Krishnapur, Kaniyur, Shiroor, Sode and Puthige which derive their names from villages around Udupi.They are housed in simple yet solemn structures opposite the Krishna Temple, in what could be called a holy plaza. There are stated to be 26 Madhwa maths in the country, most of them in Karnataka. There are a few in Andhra Pradesh and one in West Bengal (Madhwa Goudia).
The fierce debate has revived a now near forgotten taboo of Hinduism, that a Hindu should not cross the seas. The taboo was in force till the end of the 19 th Century when the Bengali elite broke it, which was avante garde in many respects. Though in the first millennium, the Hindus especially from the eastern seaboard crossed the seas and established kingdoms in South-East Asia and Indonesia, the ban on crossing the seas or foreign trips came to be strictly enforced leading to insularity and even backwardness.
However the Udupi debate was about the wisdom of the head of a Hindu religious institution visiting foreign countries peopled by mostly non-Hindus.
The objection to the Puthige Swamiji becoming the Paryaya head was that he had visited western countries like the US and remained there for long. He had served as the Paryaya Swamiji twice in the last 32 years and there was no whimper of protest as his foreign visits came only in recent years. During his visit to the US, the Swamiji had a caller in none other than the American President George Bush who had been accompanied with his wife. A picture of the Swamiji with the Bush couple had been carried in newspapers in Karnataka.
It was of interest that the opposition to the Puthige Swamiji came from one of the most reformist religious heads in the country, Sri Vishveshathirtha Swamiji, the septuagenarian head of the Pejawar Math. The Swamiji who speaks with telling effect in a very meek voice came into the limelight in 1981 when he persuaded some converts to Islam in Meenakshipuram, an obscure village in Tamilnadu to return to the fold of Hinduism. He did what few Hindu religious leaders had dared after the founder of Arya Samaj, Swami Dayanand Saraswathi in the 19 th Century who started the Shuddhi movement and brought converts to other faiths back to the fold of Hinduism.
The Pejawar Swamiji is considered close to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and among his disciples is the former BJP firebrand Uma Bharti.
The nub of the crisis in the Udupi maths was the objection to the Puthige Swamiji touching the idol of Lord Krishna and performing puja as he had been "polluted" by his foreign tour.
The objectors had suggested that he should appoint a junior Swamiji and allow him to perform the puja. The other suggestion was that though the Puthige Swamiji could become the Paryaya head, the head of the "Dwandwa" or alternative or sister math of the Puthige math, the Shiroor Math, should do the actual worship of Sri Krishna. Though some might call the opposition to the Puthige seer as antediluvian, it came to be defended as a matter of upholding traditions. The debate was not exactly sacerdotal. Even some of the Madhwas settled in foreign lands not to speak of scholars on Madhwa philosophy had joined the chorus of protest.
Classic indeed was the reply to his detractors given by the supporters of the Swamiji who never gave up, "He flew to the United States in an aero plane and did not cross the seas. He went abroad to spread Madhwa philosophy and not to enjoy material pleasures. He doest not subscribe to the view that only India is a "Punyabhoomi" and the rest of the world is "karmabhoomi". Hindu religion and philosophy should be propagated in non-Hindu lands .Sri Sugunendra Thirtha had been quoted as raising the question as to whether he should he be prevented from visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as that would involve crossing the ocean.
The new Paryaya head was also not without some support among the seven other Udupi pithadipathis. At one stage, the Swamijis of Admar and Shiroor maths had been quoted as having said that he had done nothing that was wrong. But as the controversy was prolonged, defections were seen. The Shiroor Swamiji joined the majority and boycotted the ascension ceremony. The outgoing Paryaya head, Krishnapur Swamiji did not even remain in the temple for the traditional handing over of the keys and other trappings. The boycott led by the Pejawar seer no doubt isolated the Puthige Swamiji but he is not forlorn.
The Swamiji also received moral courage from the judiciary. Some of the opponents of the Puthige Swamiji took the matter to the local civil court seeking to restrain him from becoming the Paryaya head. But the judge (Cheluva Murthy) held that in matters pertaining to the Udupi maths, those other than the eight mathadipathis had no locus standi. The matter reached the Karnataka High Court where Justice H.G.Ramesh rejected the prayer for restraining the Puthige Swamiji. The petitioners had said that on two occasions in the past, two of the Swamijis who had gone abroad had gracefully stayed away from ascending the Paryaya Peetha. But on behalf of the Puthige seer, it had been argued that there was no bar on the seers going abroad either in the religious texts or in the customs followed for centuries.
It was thus a throwback to a litigation in pre-Independence days among the Vadagalai and Thengalai sects of Srivaishnavas of Tamilnadu who had made an issue of the type of Namam (religious sign) painted on a temple elephant and "crossed the seas" to be taken upto the Privy Council. |
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