Next time you visit Bihar don’t get surprised if you find that Dalits have replaced Brahmins as the chief priests of some of the prominent temples here. For, a silent social revolution is underway in this caste-ridden state where people from the oppressed class have started performing pujas, without any murmur or protest.

The first sign of this transformation was witnessed in May 2006 when Chandeshwar Paswan, a Sanskrit scholar, was appointed Bihar’s first Dalit priest of the famous Vishwanath Mahadev Mandir at Hajipur, a one-hour drive from Patna. The ‘reincarnation’ took place on the auspicious day of Shivaratri, when a sizeable chunk of devotees thronged the temple to offer their prayers to Lord Shiva.

Emboldened over this alteration, the Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts (BSBRT) appointed another Dalit, Jamuna Das, as a priest in the Shiva temple at Bihta on January 14, the Makarsankranti Day.

The Chairman of BSBRT, Kishore Kunal, a retired IPS officer, says that such steps would go a long way in eliminating caste discrimination.

Kunal was the architect of this social revolution when he, in his capacity as the secretary of Mahavir Mandir Trust in Patna, had brought Phalhari Suryavanshi Das, a Dalit scholar, from Ravi Das temple in Ayodhya and appointed him as a priest in Patna.

Yet another Dalit from Mushahar community (lowest strata of the society) Janardan Manjhi, was appointed priest of the 300-year-old Ram Janaki temple at Paliganj on June 30 last.

“In the days to come, Begusarai and Bodh Gaya temples, too, will have Dalit priests,” averred the BSBRT chief, without batting an eyelid.