Chennai: Ayodhya Aswamedha Maha Mandapam
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History
1950s- 2022
April 17, 2022: The Times of India
A little history
T Nagar in Chennai is known as a shopping hub for locals and non-residents alike. Crammed with saree shops, jewellery stores, and hundreds of shops selling household utensils, plastic “fancy” goods, and a lot more, the locality is also home to some of the most popular religious establishments. There’s an ever-crowded temple run by the Tirupathi Devasthanam board; there’s also a gurudwara and a large Jain temple here.
To political historians, T Nagar is important because it is seen as the birthplace of the Dravidian movement. Residents of this locality, back in the early 1900s, set up the Justice Party to counter Brahmin hegemony. T Nagar (officially Theagaraya Nagar) was named after one of the founders of the Justice Party, Pitty Theagaraya Chetty. The setting up of the Justice Party is seen as the start of the Dravidian movement in the state.
Ironically, T Nagar is also home to a large number of Brahmins, a few of whom set up a fund back in the early 1950s in order to celebrate Rama Navami as a grand community festival. That was the birth of the Sri Ram Samaj, which today runs a temple, a school, a wedding/ community hall, as well as a place for devout families to conduct funeral rites. The temple is called Ayodhya Mandapam, and that’s the Ayodhya at the heart of the political brouhaha in Chennai today.
Ayodhya Mandapam, or to give it its full name, the Ayodhya Aswamedha Maha Mandapam, was built by the Sri Ram Samaj because they wanted a place where they could celebrate Rama Navami with pomp and ceremony every year. The land that had been identified by the founders of the Samaj was approved by Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, the legendary Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, widely considered to be one of the maths established by Adi Shankara. According to the Samaj’s website, the Shankaracharya “came to this location and walked through the length and breadth of the land and finally sat for some time at the place where the deities are housed today.”
From community hall to temple
While the place is largely used for religious discourses and community events, devotees do offer puja in a small part of the hall. There’s some controversy about the idols in the mandapam; some people claim that there is only a Tanjore painting of Rama, to which prayers are offered. However, the Samaj website, as well as subsequent investigations by the state government, show that idols had been installed in the hall.
The Samaj collected money from the community to perform various pujas and celebrations, and also received donations in cash and kind. In 2013, a former office-bearer of the Samaj, MV Ramani, alleged that the Samaj had misappropriated much of this money, as few of the contributions and donations were recorded in the Samaj account books. There were also accusations of tax evasion and financial mismanagement.
The Samaj disputed this, and the matter went to the Madras High Court. The court had ruled that Ayodhya Mandapam should come under the purview of the state’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department. The HR&CE department, on its part, conducted an inquiry into Ramani’s accusations. According to some news reports, the department found that the Samaj had installed idols of Rama and Sita, to which pujas were being performed twice a day, making it a temple per the HR&CE definition.
The controversy and after
In 2013, when Ramani had made his claims, the AIADMK, under J. Jayalalitha was in power in Tamil Nadu. This matters in light of many of the accusations being flung around today. Back then, after the HR&CE investigation, the court ordered the department to nominate a “fit person” to oversee the functioning of the Samaj and the Ayodhya Mandapam.
The Sri Ram Samaj contested this, and the high court granted a stay order, which continued for eight years. It was only on April 11 this year that the court vacated the stay, and the HR&CE was allowed to take over the mandapam.
The Samaj has continued to protest and the court has directed that the case will be taken up on April 21. In the meantime, the state government authorities who went to take control of the mandapam were met with serious protests. The protestors included BJP party workers as well as residents of the area. Ramani, the man who started this all, received threats and the state has given him protection.
Why does all this matter? There are regular protests every time a temple is brought under the HR&CE. It matters this time because the BJP has chosen to range itself on the side of the Samaj, and has made this an issue of devout Hindus versus a rationalist Dravidian party. The BJP has been struggling to gain a foothold in Tamil Nadu, and protests like this one could win the party some sympathy and support.
