In 2006, after Tamil Nadu’s DMK government passed an order, 206 non-Brahmin men including many from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were trained by the administration in priesthood during the following two years. Two were appointed as priests in temples years later, and another died. The other 203 are still waiting to be recruited, and earn their livelihood through sporadic housewarming ceremonies, marriage functions and rituals in small temples.
Some of the trained non-Brahmin priests have alleged that the two appointments made so far have been at smaller temples and not major ones like Srirangam or Palani, The Times of India reported.
The first non-Brahmin priest of a temple in Tamil Nadu was appointed in 2018 after many protests and legal battles. Almost two years later, another one of the 206 also got an appointment.
There are over 36,000 temples under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of Tamil Nadu. After the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government took charge in May, chief minister MK Stalin began implementing the plans and orders brought under his father M Karunanidhi’s rule. During a recent press meet, State Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) Minister PK Sekar Babu announced that Hindus of all castes would be appointed as priests in temples under the department. He also said that women would also be appointed as priests in temples after a prescribed training.
It was social activist and Tamil politician EV Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, who, through his stated resistance against caste discrimination in temple priesthood, had sowed the seeds of the change around 1970.
Sekar Babu said the government will take necessary steps to appoint qualified priests to temples before it completes 100 days. While social activists have welcomed the step, some religious leaders and devotees have said the government should not interfere in ‘Agama Shastra’ (norms related to poojas and rituals in temples), triggering heated debates.
On August 5, HR & CE Minister Sekar Babu also inaugurated the ‘Annai Thamizhil Archanai’ scheme at 47 major temples in Tamil Nadu. The scheme says, at the request of devotees, priests will chant archanai (religious prayers) in Tamil, instead of the usual Sanskrit. Back in 1971, former CM Karunanidhi had ushered in the idea and the-then HR & CE Minister Kannappan had made an announcement about it in the state assembly.
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