The Ayyappan affair

[Guest guest]

In a message Balaji Hebbar <bhebbar writes:

 

> Many a times Hon'ble

> Bannanje himself has quite candidly told me > that the hinterland

> Deccan MAdhva culture of the

> deshathas is quite

> different from

> the coastal MalabAr MAdhva culture of the TuLus > and the

 

Prof. Hebbar:

 

As a " hinterland Deccan Madhva " , I am very interested in knowing how we are

" quite different from the coastal Madhva culture " . Can you specify some

examples?

 

Regards,

Arvind Acharya

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends:

 

On the Ayyappan issue, with all due respect to ideology, one

needs to consider the historical and cultural factors as well.

The worship of bhUtas and demi-gods is and has been an

integral part of the religion of the MalabAr peoples. From

Ratnagiri in MahArAShTra to Trivandrum in Kerala, it is a

certain type of culture that is unique to the MalabAr coastal

region. The coastal MarAthi, KonkaNI, coastal KannaDa, TuLu and

MalayALam are merely linguistic variations of a fairly uniform

coastal culture. The ParashurAma legend and pride of descent

from the sage is again common to all these peoples. The

architecture, the ritual purity and the tantric style of

worship in these temples is another common feature and so on.

His Most Venerable Holiness VAdirAja TIrtharu who himself was

the " second greatest " son of the soil that we MAdhvas accept

as one of our gurus was himself faced with this " ideology "

vs. " local tradition " dilemma during his lifetime. As can be

gleamed from his bio, i.e. the VAdirAjaguruvaracaritAmRta, he

refused to enter the village of KuDuma when he came to know

that the locals offer worship to bhUtarAja aNNappa. After the

local chieftain, one VarmaNNa HeggaDe (who happened to be a

Jain and whose ideology was equally opposed to bhUta worship)

who pleaded repeatedly with our revered guru; the pontiff

eventually agreed to come only after the establishment of a

Shiva's (bhUtagaNAdhipati) shrine there. (This clearly fits in

with HH Puttige SvamIjI's advice to ShrI Gopal Potti to

worship Shiva before Ayyappan). This deity, of course, is the

famous Man~junAtheshvara and the village of KuDuma was renamed

" DharmasthaLa " . Ever since that time, despite the fact that

both Jain and MAdhva ideologies are opposed to bhUta worship,

IN DUE DEFERENCE TO THE LOCAL CULTURE, both the HeggaDes as

well as the MAdhva priests in charge of the Man~junAtha shrine

offer " worship " to bhUtarAja aNNappa.

A more modern incident (one to which I was an eyewitness in

1979 when studying with HH AdamAr sVAmIjI) I saw the pontiff

personally accept " prasAda " of flowers and kunkuma from a

" possessed " person something quite common in the " DakkebalI "

(South Kanara jAtre and bailanATaka). Again, HH Vibudhesha

TIrtha SvAmIjI explained to me that it was a deference to

local custom.

Therefore, if one divorces situations from their natural

cultural context, the whole scenario is bound to look odd

especially given ShrimadAcArya's philosophy. Many a times Hon'ble

Bannanje himself has quite candidly told me that the hinterland

Deccan MAdhva culture of the deshathas is quite different from

the coastal MalabAr MAdhva culture of the TuLus and the

KonkaNIs. Let us not forget this important aspect. May

understanding and moderation prevail at least on this issue.

 

regards,

Hari-vAyu smaraNa

B.N.Hebbar