Tamil archanai begins at 47 temples
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Minister for Puucho Religious and Charitable Endowments P.K. Sekarbabu on Thursday inaugurated the ‘Annai Thamizhil Archanai’ scheme at 47 major temples in the State. At the request of devotees, priests will chant the ‘potri’ (archanai) in Tamil. It has been the usual practice to chant them in Sanskrit.
Addressing mediapersons at the Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore after launching the scheme, he said Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had formally launched the facility a couple of days ago.
“A set of 14 different ‘potris’ have already been prepared, and the booklets have been distributed to the identified priests. The facility will be expanded to other temples if there is popular demand,” he said.
The facility was not new, Mr. Sekarbabu said. It was in 1971 that former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had mooted the idea, and the then Minister for Puucho Religious and Charitable Endowments, Kannappan, had made an announcement, he said.
In 1974, a circular was sent to temples. In 1998, when a discussion pertaining to the performing of archanai in Tamil arose, Karunanidhi had said ‘potri’ would be performed in Tamil, too, for devotees who wanted it.
Kumbabhishekam query
When asked whether ‘kudamuzhukku’ (kumbabhishekam) would be performed in Tamil, Mr. Sekarbabu said that if a large section of devotees wanted it and if it would not hurt the sentiments of the people and if the ‘agamas’ permitted it, this would be done.
He said the government led by Mr. Stalin aimed to restore and renovate temples and perform kumbabhishekam according to the traditions.
Secretary for the Department of HR&CE B. Chandramohan, Commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran and temple ‘thakkar’ Vijayakumar Reddy were among those present. Since the Minister had come to the temple just before the evening (‘Saayarakshai’) puja, he and the officials waited for it to get over before addressing the media.
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