‘Kanchi Math is not a place of worship’ -- Jayalalithaa

From day one, when the Acharya was put behind the bars, Jayalalithaa’s government has been heaping scorns, insults and humiliations on him endlessly and ruthlessly, by every possible way and means. And it has now come to a climax!

When the government of the erstwhile actress-turned politician, said that the Kanchi Math is not a place of worship, she not only insulted the Hindu traditions of the 2500-years of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, but also indirectly maligned all the Maths and the Mathadhipathis of Tamil Nadu, and posed a challenge to them. The reaction of the “Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha”, an apex Hindu body comprising all the Mathadhipathis and Mandaleshwars, is not immediately known.

Needless to say that the devotee were amused, nay hurt when Jayalalithaa’s government made this ludicrous statement: ‘Kanchi Math is not a place of worship.’ Perhaps, this might be a clever ploy for avoiding all responsibility for the misdeeds of her police at the Math which they invaded without the permission of the Acharya, to arrest him, or is she indirectly defending their misdeeds?

“Kanchi Math is not a place for either private of public worship; it is a place where the Peethadhipathis are permanently residing… If some people are under the impression that the Math is a place of worship, they are sadly mistaken… it is only a dwelling place/ residential colony (of the members of the Math who are permanently residing there), with all the facilities such as kitchen, bedroom, attached toilets, etc, a dwelling place with television sets, cable networks, etc)”-- that is how Jayalalithaa’s government described the Kanchi Shankara Math while challenging notice issued by the National Human Rights Commission over the alleged violation of the sanctity of the math during the arrest of the junior Acharya on the night of January 10.

The writ petition filed by the State Chief Secretary today in the Madras High court went on to assert, “no deity is ever installed in the Math so as to qualify it as a place of worship. Entry of the Math is not available to the general public and is, at the best, confined to a select group of people. Hence to call it a place of worship is a misnomer.” It further said, “There is no sanctum sanctorum for anyone to perform any pooja to any deity therein…The Math is not a temple in the ordinary sense or in any religious sense.” Also the body of the earlier Pontiff, Chandrasekarendra Saraswati was buried inside the Math. “No Hindu temple or relic could accommodate a body to be buried or allow the temple to be a graveyard inside a place of worship”, the petition declared. The petition also makes a foray into archaeology while disputing claims that the centuries-old tradition of the Math had been violated in the arrest episode. The inscriptions of the Pallava period (dating back to 12th and 13th centuries) did not refer to the Math at all though Kancheepuram was the capital of the Pallavas, said the petition.

As the Tamil Nadu Govt. says if the Math is not a place of worship, why is it that the Govt. is interfering in the Math activities by scrutinizing the Math accounts under the HR & CE Act? And when regular poojas are performed to the Math deity, Chandramouleeswar, as well as to the Adhisthanam of Paramacharya, how can the Govt. say that it is not a place of worship? Thousands of devotees, irrespective of caste daily visit the Kanchi Shankara Math because it is a place of worship. And above all, the Mathadhipathi himself is a living deity adored by all the devotees who visit the Math regularly.