Shutters down as devotees protest

The temple town of Kukke Subramanya wore a deserted look on Monday. Following the tiff between the devotees and the liberals, who were against the Madae Snana (pilgrims rolling over leftover food consumed by the upper-caste Hindus), the situation became tense. Protesting against the liberalist campaign, a bandh was called for, in which over 1,000 devotees participated. The supporters took out a procession, which went all over the town and dispersed near the temple.

As a response to the bandh, shops remained closed; there was not a drop of water for those who had come from far-flung places to witness the ritual.

 “The liberals were carrying out a smear campaign against an established centre of faith of Hindus and in the name of Madae Snana.  This ritual was not something that has come into practice in recent times, but had been there for generations and people do practice it even today. By denigrating the ritual and its practice, the liberals were hurting the religious sentiments of the devotees,” said Subramanya Shastry, a local leader.

“It is wrong to say that only Dalits and tribal people take part in the Madae Snana. We have inquiries from even upper-caste Hindus not just from Karnataka but also from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. But since Madae Snana is not official, we have not offered such service to any devotee. But if they do it on their own, we do not have the power to stop them. This will be an infringement of the rights eschewed in the constitution,” said temple authorities.

The bandh had, however, not affected the functioning of the temple, as prayers were held on time and prasadam distributed to devotees. The temple authorities clarified that the bandh had got nothing to do with the temple. The temple had, in fact, prepared Anna Prasadam (mass feeding) for devotees.