Government Stand On Religious Status Of Kanchi Mutt Refuted

KALAVA, INDIA, January 31, 2005, HPI

Discounting Tamil Nadu government's stand that the Sankara Math premises at Kancheepuram was not a place of worship, the Math on Sunday night asserted that it housed several icons, including that of the second Shankaracharya Sureshwara Acharya, and poojas were being performed. Describing the government's latest stand taken in the Madras High court as “contradictory” to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's January 12 reply to the Prime Minister on his apprehension about a possible break in the traditional poojas, Math sources said here that the Chief Minister had stated that the poojas were being performed at the Math even in the absence of the Acharyas. In a counter in the High court on January 27 while seeking a stay on the National Human Rights Commission's notice questioning the manner of the recent arrest of junior seer Vijayendra Saraswathi from the mutt premises, the government had said the mutt was “not a place for either private or public worship.”