Udayavar Thittam - part 2

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Sri:

SrimathE Ramanujaya Nama:

AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigalE Saranam

appan thiruvadigalE Saranam

 

Dear group

 

First I would like to apologize for the use of the word Harijans in

my earlier post, appropriately pointed out by the moderator.

 

Most of the material that is covered in this series, is from Koyil

Olugu, a book called Impact of Sri Ramanuja on Temple Worship, and

few other tamil works on Divya Desam. Some people had shown some

interest in the way Sri Ramanuja went about setting up the management

of the temple, hence the short series. Please do feel free to correct

or add to the material presented.

 

The SenApati Durantara (the Chief of all groups) has many duties

starting from early morning till the end of the day. He is also known

as Sri KAryam. His duties re:

 

1. First after morning rituals, visit the temple and pray to the Lord.

2. Inspect the Kitchen

3. Inspect the daily supplies such as the earthen pot that was

delivered, the provisions, and other material that go into the

preparation of prasadam. He will assign the duties to the head cook

and the ekAnkis their respective duties for the day.

4. After inspecting the kitchen, he would listen to the recitation of

the Vedas and other Sanskrit works at the main shrine. He would ask

the ekAnki in the shrine to carry the essentials like camphor,

sandal, kasturi, tiruman etc to the archakas. will also do the same

for the thAyAr shrine.

5. He then goes to the garden and inspect the flower, to see if the

plants are watered and kept well.

6. after praying to Sri Senai mudaliyAr, he would meet the

representatives of all the 19 groups, the ekAnkis and SAttada mudali

to lecture on the importance of each groups duties.

7. Then he oversees the puja inside the main sanctum

 

The same is done for the evening puja. The SenApati Durantara, gets

some rest in the afternoon. During the Festival times, there would be

no rest for anyone involved in the temple management. This is because

of additional work involved in preparing the utsava vahanam etc.

 

The SenApati has few deputies who would help him in smooth

organization. they are:

 

1. Head of the Storehouse: His duty is to make sure all the material

such as rice, lentils vegetables are delivered in time and in

required amount. There would be 10 types of vegetables, fruits, etc

that will have to be received and inspected. He is also incharge of

feeding all the domestic animals, like temple elephants, cow, pigeons

etc.

 

2. Supervisor of the temple structure: He has to make sure the walls

and gopuras are clean and free of parasitic plants. he work load

increases during the utsavas as he has to build and decorate the

pandals and other sheds etc.

 

3. Head of the Misc Store house: This person is in charge of non-

edible stuff like camphor tiruman, plant seed, flower seeds for the

garden, fertilizer etc.

 

4. head of the temple lands: in charge of sowing seeds in the temple

lands in proper seasons, supply rice, lentils etc to the store house,

collect revenues from the leased lands

 

5. head of the cow-shed: he would be in charge of managing the cows,

feeding, grazing and milking them every day.

 

6. EkAnkis: they are 4 in number, couple of them help in the kitchen

and store house. Another would help the senApati inside the sanctum

and the fourth would assist the head of the temple lands. All 4 would

still be under the direction of senApati.

 

 

Sri MudaliAndan held this office first under the order of Sri

Ramanuja. his descendents held the title for more than 200 years

until the Muslim invasion. After the restoration of the temple, the

senApati was shared between the families of Bhattar and mudaliAndan.

 

 

to be continued ................

 

adiyEn

Venkatesh Elayavilli