Fw: APEX COURT JUDGEMENT CASTS SHADOW OVER FUTURE OF NAMBOOTHIRIS

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Wednesday, May 07, 2003 9:37 AM

Fw: APEX COURT JUDGEMENT CASTS SHADOW OVER FUTURE OF NAMBOOTHIRIS

 

 

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> "namboothiri.com" <vinodpolpaya

> <Recipient list suppressed>

> Tuesday, May 06, 2003 10:33 AM

> APEX COURT JUDGEMENT CASTS SHADOW OVER FUTURE OF NAMBOOTHIRIS

>

>

> Updates from www.namboothiri.com

> ------------------------

>

> Given below is an article by Leo Panakkal on Namboothiris. He lives in

Fort

> Cochin and can be contacted in <baratfeatures.

>

> Leo Panakal is the discoverer of the true identity of Jesus as Lucifer. He

> has been involved in the work of discovery from a very early age. The

break

> came in the 1970's when he accidentally read a single verse of

Manusmrithi,

> Dharmo rakshathi rakshitha. That circumstance served as the gene of the

> discovery. It caused him to resume his ancient studies on Hinduism and

> Christianity. The study yielded thousands of pages of data proving Hindus

to

> be the most ancient and the most benevolent race of mankind. Part of the

> study was done in Switzerland.

>

> His findings have been published in three books by him-The Key to the

bible,

> The Judgement on christianity and Preview.

>

> By profession, Leo Panakal is a foreign agency correspondent. In 1961 he

was

> staff correspondent of Reuters news agency in New Delhi.

>

> However, foreign correspondent of religious news in India, Pakistan and

Sri

> Lanka has been his paramount activity right from 1950.

>

> Last year he launched BNF, Bharat News Feature Service. This is an online

> international Hindu news-feature service.

>

> Leo Panakal is an arts graduate of the University of Madras with second

> class in English and Sanskrit.

>

> He is now nearing 73.

>

> Chief Co-ordinator

> www.namboothiri.com

>

>

> October 30, 2002

>

>

>

> APEX COURT JUDGEMENT CASTS SHADOW

>

> OVER FUTURE OF NAMBOOTHIRIS

>

>

>

> By

>

> Leo Panakal

>

>

>

> NEW DELHI, India (BNF) - The Indian supreme court has ruled that the

former

> untouchable classes are entitled to the office of Temple Santhikars

hitherto

> held solely by Malayalee Brahmins known exclusively as Namboothiris.

>

> The office functioning in hundreds of temples in Kerala and one, possibly

> two, outside was the preserve of Namboothiris all through their dual

> histories.

>

> It is also the second and the last such benefice to be lost to them after

> agrarian reforms in 1957-59 divested them of titular ownership over vast

> tracts of land.

>

> The twin bounties freed the community from physical chores and left it

> solely engaged in the preservation and memorial retention of Vedas as the

> backbone of Hinduism in India and abroad and as the oldest literature of

> man.

>

> The supreme court made the ruling in a lawsuit instituted by a Brahmin

> worshipper at a Siva temple at Neerikode in the old Hindu kingdom of

> Alangad. Worshipper Adithyan Namboothiri was an ardent devotee of Sivan,

who

> was initially brought into material presence by Namboothiri thanthris

> (head-priests) by means of Rishi-derived Vedic prathishtta (installation)

in

> the idol in the garbagriha (sanctum sanctorum) of the Temple, where

> presumably once stood a kaavu (grove) formed in snake appeasement by

> Kerala's pre-Namboothiri Nair inhabitants.

>

> The temple is administered by the Travancore Devaswom Board, one of

hundreds

> so controlled by the government body after the old kingdom of Travancore

> merged in the Indian Union soon after the country's independence. The

number

> of temples in Travancore alone was estimated totally at 3,817 in 1870.

>

> The Board has no control as yet over certain supplementary categories of

>

> temples in the State including the Oorayma temples of Namboothiris, mostly

> family shrines standing in Illams or Mana, the age-old Namboothiri

homestead

>

> that is also freehold property.

>

> The Board named a member of the non-Namboothiri Eazhava caste to the key

> ritual position of Santhikaran at Neerikode after he qualified at its

tests.

> Eazhavas are chethukaars (toddy-tappers) by hereditary caste trade.

>

> Adithyan challenged the appointment on the ground that a non-Namboothiri

> ministering to his religious needs as a Vedic Hindu would cause

infringement

> of his basic statutory right "to profess and practise religion."

>

> The right is encoded as a fundamental right in Article 25 of the Indian

> Constitution which reads: Subject to public order, morality and health all

> persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely

> to profess, practise and propagate religion. The supreme court ruled later

> in a specific case that the right also extends to "rituals and

observances"

> when regarded as integral parts of a religion by adherents of a particular

> doctrine.

>

> Adithyan Namboothiri went in appeal to the supreme court after the Kerala

> high court earlier upheld the Travancore Board's pathbreaking nomination.

>

> Ruling in the Board's favour, the apex court said there was "no

> justification" in the claim that only a born Namboothiri can effectively

> perform the rites and rituals in the Temple in question. The two-judge

bench

> declared: "As long as any one well versed and properly trained and

qualified

> to perform the puja in a manner conducive and appropriate to the worship

of

> the particular deity, is appointed as Santhikaran dehors his pedigree

based

> on caste, no valid or legally justifiable grievance can be made in a court

> of law."

>

> Legal sources contacted by BNF confirmed that the suit was probably lost

by

> failure to bring out the unique lineal descent of Namboothiris from the

> far-famed Rishis of Bharatham. The court said at one point in the

judgement

> that "there has been no proper plea or sufficient proof" placed before it

of

> "any specific custom or usage specially created by the Founder of the

> Temple."

>

> Rishis form a class of beings distinct from devas (gods) and humans. The

> Vedas were first revealed to them. Sanskrit scriptures name seven primal

> rishis. Collectively called saptharshis, the seven primitive rishis are

> Marichi, Athri, Angeeras, Pulahan, Pulasthyan, Krathu and Vasishttan. They

> apparently entered into aarshavivaham (Rishi-ite marriage) in India, one

of

> eight kinds of marriage acknowledged in Hindu scriptures. Figuring as

third

> in the list, after Braahmavivaham and Devavivaham, Aarshavivaham is

defined

> as "the gift of a kanyaka (maiden) in return for a cow or ox."

>

> The advent of Rishis in India occurred at the midpoint of Dwaaparayugam

and

> the ongoing Kaliyugam.

>

> Students of Hinduism point out that the factual existence of Namboothiris

> furnishes indubitable evidence of the existence of Rishis, who are the

> source of Vedic Hinduism.

>

> In the context of the supreme court judgement, BNF asked several

> Namboothiris to comment on its implications vis-à-vis the future of their

> race that British author Fred Fawcett more than 100 years ago described as

> "the truest

>

> Aryans in Southern India, holding a position for sanctity and respect far

> above that of all other Brahmins."

>

> At Cherppu near Trichur K. P. C. Anujan Bhattathirippad said loss of

>

> santhihood meant "loss of livelihood.That will be a tragedy," he added

> feelingly.

>

> Bhattathiris are Namboothiris meritoriously titled as Bhats at the

assembly

> of scholars and graduated into Bhattathiripads at the end of seven

> generations.

>

> Perhaps the best known Bhattathiri is Melpathoor Narayanan Bhattathiri

> (1560-1648) who wrote the celebrated work Narayaneeyam while abiding at

the

> Guruvayoor temple in supplication for relief from excruciating rheumatism.

> The opening verse he composed did not however ask for personal favour but

> rather for removal of the world's sadness.

>

> Others interviewed include one of Rishi Vasishttan's lineal descendants,

> Mohanan Namboothiripad, who belongs to Kalady, birthplace of

Sankaracharya.

> He said sombrely that the Namboothiri "prays for the welfare of all" and

> that the court judgement "cannot be termed incorrect" in the context.

>

> Answering a question, Mohanan Namboothiripad said his clan's Oorayma

temple

> at Kalady is at least 900 years old, about 300 years subsequent to

> Sankaracharya.

>

> Fawcett's is a firsthand study of Namboothiris in the British-ruled

Malabar

> region of Kerala. He lists 24 different Namboothiri clans he found there

at

> the end of the 19th century, all but three of them lineally descended from

> five of the original seven primitive Rishis. The others are Namboothiri

> gothrams traced to two secondary rishis--Bhargava and Viswamitra.

>

> Many Namboothiri illams in the rest of Kerala have their roots in Malabar

> where Namboothiris numbered hardly 10,000 in 1891 out of a total

population

> of nearly 3 million.

>

> Writes Fawcett: "The Namboothiri enters into none of the ordinary pursuits

> of livelihood, and for that very reason is able to maintain his high

> position, and to exercise influence for good which is very considerable.

>

> "A peace-loving people and devoted to their religion, the Namboothiris are

> beyond doubt. Long may they remain as they are, untouched by what we hear

> called 'progress,' but which is really change--for better or worse, who

> knows? Long may they be what they are, the only undisturbed vestiges of

> Vedic Brahmanism."

>

> Another Britisher concerned over the possible extinction of Namboothiris

is

> Claire Parsons who was married a year ago by Parameswaran Embranthiri,

> lineal descendant of primitive Rishi Angeeras and Santhikaran at the

ancient

> Pavakkulam Siva temple in east Kochi.

>

> She wrote soon afterwards to the Religious Affairs Editor of The Guardian

> newspaper in London: "The Brahmins and Namboothiris of this area, along

with

> other areas, are slowly but surely facing extinction. That to me seems a

> terrible shame. The Red Indians, the Polynesians and the Aboriginees. Look

> what happened to such civilizations. And now the Brahmins and

Namboothiris.

> What of their fate. Arguably the cleverest and most knowing of all

existing

> civilizations, the Hindus face extinction."

>

>