ADHVAGATI

The picture in recent newspapers,of priests entering the Pashupatinath Temple in Nepal amidst a tight cordon of armed police made sad viewing. Is this any way for a worshiper to enter a House of God ? With guns ! Sign of the times....... Many theories are floating around about the origin of the tradition of South Indian Priests in Pashupatinath. None actually substantiated. For all we know,the practice may have started as a practical solution for some predicament in the hazy past - a time, when the map of the world was completely different and equation between kingdoms completely different too. In today's changed scenario in a cartographically changed world, holding on to an unusual arrangement just to satisfy a "tradition" seems to me to be a sure way to invite repeated sociological snafus. After all, we , today, need visas to visit the holiest of our icons, Mt. Kailas, while our rishi-munis of yore could wander there at will without getting arrested for illegal imm...

They had to bring politics into temples too. Pashupatinath in Kathmandu has been made a boxing- ring to decide who is stronger - Tradition or Change. Maoists, the current rulers,have just sent the Udupi brahmins, the traditional priests, packing. Unchanging Tradition was what i experienced in abundance on a short visit to Patan ( or Lalithpur near Kathmandu), the ancient capital of The Mallas, some years ago. It did look like a land that time forgot, just as the tourist brochure had promised. But it was not love at first sight for me. 'Getting into the skin ' of the place proved a bit unsettling. Embarking on a stroll around the three Courtyards of The Durbar Square ( The Mul Chowk, Sundari Cowk and Keshab Narayan Chowk), i was enveloped by an effect i was totally unprepared for. As i stood surrounded by the burnt sienna of aging bricks and strange multi tiered roofs, i involuntarily shuddered . Inspite of the milling crowds of camera toting tourists, there was a stra...