By Biswaraj Patnaik in Puri, March 9, 2017 : Hindu devotees narrate beautiful experiences of visit to the Himalayan shrine of Maata Vaishnodevi, Lord Venkateshwara in Tirupati, Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala and above all Saibaba Temple in Siridi of Maharashtra saying they would return there any number of times only because they have grand glimpse of the Deities without seeing one servitor.

In contrast, as one enters the 12th century Jagannath Temple in Puri, you encounter servitors, servitors and only servitors who make life miserable, and by the time you reach the sanctum sanctorum, the energy, excitement and mood to see the Lord is just gone.

Not very long ago, a highly reputed Odisha bureaucrat had expressed a strange desire while discussing critical issues of the state with friends: just one year service as the head of Jagannath temple administration. The reason was amusing. A few of his sophisticated friends had come to visit the temple as commoners. But the encounter with the greedy, ill–behaved priests was awfully hurting. A noisy priest brought his hefty hand on the tender nape of the lone lady devotee company so forcefully that she simply could not even raise her eyes to see what was happening. She was asked to cough up a big amount of money on to the collection plate.

Both physical and mental pain at peak, she did the slave job and ensured release. Right then and there did she vow never to come back to the great temple nor recommend friends to ever visit the over-hyped shrine. The reputation of the Jagannath Temple today has gone so low! The bureaucrat would have been grateful to God for getting an opportunity to cleanse the system by first fixing the erring, militant servitors.

Belatedly, the Odisha government has realised the urgency of fresh reforms to make the Jagannath temple the preferred shrine to visit among all four Dhams (most sacred Hindu pilgrimage destinations).

Incidentally, the government had snatched the basic management rights from the Gajapati monarch only with a view to turning the temple a remarkably devotee–friendly shrine in the early fifties of the last century, without realising the fact that the grossly obsolete tradition of hereditary priesthood would cause the most terrible woe to all.

No one knows since when and how any male baby born to the Brahmin and Daita clans of the nearly seventy five categories of servitors has to be considered a servitor with a share of the revenue in whatever manner collected. As history indicates, the principal Brahmin touch-Deity servitors were to get part of the food offerings as their wage or money obtained from sale of the same. The Daita clan without any touch-Deity right are only required for a month during sickness and car festival outing.

But due to television coverage, they projected themselves as the principal servitors and took huge advantage in making money by deceptively posing as ‘Pandas’ or the Brahmin servitors who offer touch Deity services and offer sacred food. As time rolled by, Jagannath temple became more and more famous and revenue collection also soared. But the principal servitor communities expected to be exclusively at the Lords’ service without any other commercial activity made hay at both ends without any scrutiny, primarily because the government officials never studied or sought to know the true tradition.

Unfortunately today, the number of the principal servitors has risen to more than 10000 which is mind-boggling and trouble – causing. The age old practice of serving without self interest is just not a point to consider. During monarchical times, because priestly services did not fetch comfort–ensuring income, no one volunteered to become a priest from the clans.

Hence, the founding monarchs made it obligatory on the priestly class to have their male children step in. But today the servitors run hotels, shops, run construction business, take up government jobs, and do any other thing to make money, remaining servitors only when there is revenue to share. They are not dismissed on grounds of ineligibility. Even practicing lawyers the world over are disqualified once found to be engaged in any other profit activity full time as they can’t concentrate on the main job and cause harm to clients.

The terrible hereditary tradition could provoke judges, IAS officers, doctors, scientists and other knowledge-skill based professionals to have their children considered doctors, scientists and so on from birth by citing Puri servitor status.

The Justice BP Das commission need not reinvent the wheel. He must look up how the AP government fixed the priestly system by first abolishing the stupid hereditary rights. The select ones recommended by the families have to take scripture knowledge, skill and behaviour tests to qualify as potential priests to fill in when vacancies occur in the event of retirement or death of serving priests.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister NT Rama Rao did a much saner job by instituting a commission headed by Justice Chella Kondiah in 1995 to do thorough investigation and make appropriate recommendations for devotee-friendly management of temples in the state.

The high priests of all classes that touch the Deity, are extremely disciplined and do maintain high standards of purity and sacredness; maintain celibacy during their tenure in the temple to perform ‘archana’ and offer worship to the deity. They don’t eat fish–flesh meals. They are provided with two Brahmin assistants of their choice for cooking food, keeping the surrounding clean and following the ‘majhar’ rituals as per prescribed norms.

On March 19 in 1996, the Thirumala Temple of Lord Venkateshwara, the richest and most visited temple in the world, was reformed by the Apex Court on a petition by the AP government. The landmark judgment upheld the nullification of the centuries-old trusteeship rights of the temple’s hereditary Mirasi priests. Hindu devotees rejoiced and welcomed the decree as a means to curb rampant corruption by the greedy, machinating high priests.

The committee advised immediate abolition of hereditary Mirasi (priests) rights. Accordingly, the government promulgated the Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, which annulled all the rights and emoluments accrued in cash or kind to the Mirasis including their share in ‘Prasadam’, ‘Hundi’ or ‘Sevas’. The twelve Mirasi families lost a cool seven crore rupees earned without any labour or intellectual input.

The Mirasi priests challenged the Act as a violation of their fundamental rights. Their plea was dismissed in the High Court, and the rejection of their appeal in the apex court brought the curtain down on a decade-long legal battle. The greedy priests lost the battle to the delight of countless Hindus across the globe.

The day after the court decree, the main Archaka (priest) reportedly refused to adorn the Deity with His invaluable jewels. (The Deity possesses a rich array of antique diamond-studded jewellery beyond value including a diamond crown worth US$4 billion.) The main Archaka, authorized to touch the Deity, had personally kept guard over the Lord’s jewels as a moral imperative. If anything was found missing, he would have to reimburse the temple immediately. After losing the sacred responsibility, the high priest started throwing tantrums saying he wouldn’t guard over the valuables anymore. The new management cautioned him: he would lose everything if he relinquished responsibility. The Archaka finally surrendered for he realised he would be doomed.

Interestingly one Mirasi family revealed they were not priest class at all. Many Mirasis hired surrogate agents to do their job for a price and pursued bigger profit activities elsewhere. They went in hiding to avoid the press as the truth would annoy the new Trust. The masquerading priests gave in and we’re rehabilitated somehow.

All priests including ‘archakas’, ‘gamekars’ and other temple workers can now enter only if they pass in the stringent selection process assessing their competence and knowledge of the requisite ‘shastras’ including ‘slokas’ or hymns. Proficiency requirements are now non-negotiable. Aspirants have to learn either through a Guru or elders at home, or by attending leading schools imparting Vedic education. The court concluded that the legislature is competent to define qualifications for archakas and to conduct examinations to select the real fit ones. The State was also directed by the court to determine the conditions of service, scale of pay and other emoluments for the selected employees.

Virtually no one missed the greedy priests. Enlightened locals including a leading lawyer said if kings, landlords and mighty Nizams could go, the ‘zamindari’ abolished, the greedy Mirasis having been thrown makes a great deal of sense. The temple food offering used to be converted into money to fill the pockets of these Mirasis who were mean and wicked brokers. They served themselves more than they did the Deity. A big section of workers had welcomed ‘Prasadam’, the holy food offered in the various sevas, including the famous laddus, were the privileged duty of the Gamekar Mirasi to prepare. So they looted the entire proceeds from sale.

The Mirasi tradition began with only four families, which have gradually expanded and become more than twelve. The families took turns and serve at the temple for one year at a time. All this mediaeval period feudal tradition came to an end. Hence, the wealthiest temple in the world is a virtual paradise for the devotee. There is no priestly torture anymore. As per records, the monarchs had set up Ashrams and Mutts to provide stay and free food for the pilgrims who took great pain in reaching Puri on foot or slow carts during ancient times. Volunteering, philanthropic servitors were given support to do the pilgrim – devotee service well.

But as time rolled by, voluntarism and the sense of philanthropy vanished and the inheritors of the handful of philanthropic servitors began using the property and facilities for personal benefits. Most painfully, out of the 752 mutt and ashram facilities, less than a hundred are still in place but public service has stopped since long. Rogue custodians have sold away precious assets to make private money. The authorities of today don’t seem to know the truth. Puri servitors were regarded as the best serving lot without any self interest during the monarchical times. Now they are probably one of the worst as money making has turned most of them evil.

Further, in Puri, the servitor families have grown in thousands encase of the faulty hereditary system. And the so called priests can hardly recite a holy hymn or explain the Jagannath culture. All that they do is to pose in priestly robes when money-fetching events occur. There are even police officials, administrators, corporate manager and professors who turn up to grab the birth–right share.

No wonder, devotee torture is on the rise because their number is so huge. One member from each family can compete in the tests to qualify for being accepted as priest. The temple will then become a divinely joyful environment for all. The revenue that the temple collects through multiple methods is meant for the joy of the devotees, never for the welfare of the servitors alone. The servitors have a right to live with dignity; but they have to become servitors first and remain limited in number not exceeding seventy five on regular days. The ones that have no ‘seva’ or service should not be allowed to enter the temple in ‘servitor robe’. They can hang around there in plain clothes like any other devotee. By this critical move, much of servitor torture can diminish without fail.

The Justice Das commission can take inspiration from the Tirupati temple and come up with even better measures to turn the Temple paradise by first abolishing the hereditary rights of the priests who have grown too huge in number to even get regular work. But they share scarce public one without making any contribution and in good amounts, which hurts the public as that’s sin!