Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

The stage is set for yet another tug-of-war between rationalists and the religious in the state. The former have knocked on chief minister Siddaramaiah’s doors, seeking a ban on the annual 3-day Madae Snana ritual in December.

At the ritual, Brahmins are offered food on plantain leaves. Devotees, generally of the lower castes, roll over the left-over food as fulfillment of a prayer-vow, at the Kukke Subrahmanya Swamy temple in Dakshina Kannada district.

A public interest litigation against the practice led to a huge controversy last year, as the government sought to forcibly impose a ban on Madae Snana. The issue is still pending in the Supreme Court.

In an effort to work around the Supreme Court case, three persons — Karunakar Yennemajal, a resident of Sullia taluk in Dakshina Kannada, Jayakumar Hiremath and K Narayana Shetty, resident of Mangalore taluk— petitioned Siddaramaiah on November 16. They sought a prohibition on the existing practice of distributing Annaprasadam or meals in the outer yard of Kukke Subrahmanya Swamy temple separately to Brahmins on the days of Chouti, Panchami and Shashti.

"We are all devotees of lord Subrahmanya Swamy and have sought a ban as Brahmins and non-Brahmins being treated differently on these auspicious days," Hiremath told Bangalore Mirror. "The petition is meant to bring in equality at the religious place, which comes under the state government, and where all devotees should be treated the same, irrespective of caste."

The CM’s office has directed the temple to "take appropriate action’’ on the petition. This issue is also being handled with kid gloves like the recent controversy over the Adda Pallaki in Jewargi, Gulbarga, where a community of Lingayats opposed the Veera Shaiva practice of carrying the pontiff of the Rambhapuri mutt in a palanquin on their shoulders. The government permitted the practice to take place within a limited area and did not allow a public procession.

The Madae Snana petition, a copy of which is with Bangalore Mirror, says: "The practice of providing sacred food/annaprasadam meal separately for Brahmin community is denial of commensality. It involves discriminating against non-Brahmins in seating arrangement. This practice gives primacy to Brahmins to sit in an exclusive group, segregated from members of other castes, who are treated as unfit to have sacred food with Brahmins." The petition adds, "The enforcement of the disability on non-Brahmins, which prevents them from being a part of a group which enjoys special privileges, merely on the basis of caste, is in patent violation of the mandate under article - 17 of the Indian Constitution, which declares that untouchability is abolished." The temple brass maintained that they were yet to receive any such communique from the CMO to act. "We haven’t received any communique so far. It will take time as it has to come in a proper channel," M Nagaraj, executive officer, Kukke Shree Subrahamanya temple, told Bangalore Mirror.
 
Modified version?
 Modified version still under stay Last year, Madae Snana had reached the Karnataka High Court, which had okayed a modified version of the ritual. It was changed to Ede Snana, under which it was proposed that devotees would fulfill their vow by rolling over the food offered to the deity instead of the leftover of food partaken by Brahmins. However, a group of devotees challenged the High Court order and moved the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in turn has stayed the modified version. Subsequently, Madae Snana was carried out as usual last December, under police protection.