கேரள கம்யூனிஸ்ட் அரசு இந்துமத பல்கலைக்கழகம் தொடங்குகிறது

இந்துமத சாஸ்திரங்கள், சம்பிரதாயங்கள், ஆகமம், தாந்திரம் ஆகியவற்றில் பயிற்சி கொடுத்து ஆயிரக்கணக்கான கோவில்களில் பூசாரிகளாக பலரை நியமனம் செய்வதற்காக கேரள கம்யூனிஸ்ட் அரசாங்கம் பல்கலைக்கழகம் ஆரம்பிக்க இருக்கிறது.

வாழ்க வளமுடன்

Communist govt proposes Tantric university for KeralaPublished: Friday, 10 August, 2007, 01:16 AM Doha Time

By Ashraf Padanna

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala’s Communist-led government is seriously considering a Tantric university to train priests and people associated with conducting temple rituals.
Deposing before the three-member panel probing the affairs of the Travancore Devaswam Board (TDB), Temple Affairs Minister G Sudhakaran said it was high time that the priests taught how to conduct rituals to the satisfaction of devotees.
“They don’t know the basics of Hinduism and what the rituals and mantras are all about. They have little knowledge in Sanskrit as well,” the minister, a prominent Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader, said.
The autonomous temple authority is responsible for running 1,200 temples in southern Kerala, including the famed hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa on Sabarimala, and it is under probe for corruption and malpractices by the panel appointed by the High Court.
The panel chairman Justice K S Paripoornan, a former Supreme Court judge, had recently pulled up one of the priests of Sabarimala, Kandararu Mohanaru, as he fumbled before the commission when tested his knowledge in Hindu philosophy and ancient scriptures.
The minister said the government would bring in legislation if needed to set up the Tantric university in consultation with Hindu scholars and those who are well versed with the rituals. But it would not be under the federal University Grants Commission.
The proposal came when the panel sought the minister’s suggestions to improve the affairs of Travancore Devaswam, which “is corrupt, has no work culture and no respect for the devotees” according to the panel.
“These priests, the tantris, poojaris and shantis, do not know how to spiritually satisfy devotees. We all know that these people don’t either know how to conduct rituals properly,” the minister told reporters later.
He said the university would teach them the basics of Hinduism, mantras and rituals through regular courses, orientation and training camps and refreshment courses.
“The Commission has already cited all these flaws in its observations. Now the government has to act,” the minister said.
The state government recently proposed an all-women season at the Sabarimala temple, which is the abode of the bachelor god where women of fertile age are not allowed, much to the chagrin of the hardcore Hindu groups.
The minister said Sabarimala is now the richest temple in Kerala visited by nearly 50mn devotees every year. “The TDB is also most corrupt temple administrations in the state,” he said.
The minister said the government would form a “Hindu Pilgrimage Trust” to monitor activities of Sabarimala temple and to end the “corruption and nepotism that have been there for the past 30 years”.
Former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director DR Karthikeyan and former judge Tulasidas are other members of the panel that started functioning in January.
The committee was asked to submit a report on allegations of misappropriation of money donated by devotees, corruption in purchases and taking bribe while recruiting staff.
Citing this, chief priest Kandararu Maheshwararu and his son Mohanaru recently moved the Kerala High Court contending that the commission exceeded its jurisdiction by asking Mohanararu questions regarding rituals and scriptures.
They said the commission also asked questions about their personality and the capability of doing the rituals “tarnishing the image of the tantri and Sabariamla”.