'Made Snana' performed at Subrahmanya

Tight security at temple, no untoward incident reported

The controversial Made Snana ritual was performed at the Kukke Subrahmanya temple in Dakshina Kannada district on Sunday.

After the pooja, the members of the Brahmin community were offered ‘prasada.’ Soon after they had food, more than 350 devotees rolled over the plantain leaves with leftovers.

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the High Court order on the practice of ‘Made Snana’ in the temple. The Karnataka government had recently filed an affidavit in the High Court modifying the annual ritual and the High Court had accepted it.

The government had said devotees would no longer be allowed the practice of rolling over plantain leaves with leftovers of food.

Instead, the food offered to the deity will be directly brought from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple to the outer yard in the form of ‘prasadam’ and it will be placed on the plantain leaves.

Any devotee can roll over it as part of their ‘harake’ (offering to the god). It had also been decided against serving food to Brahmins or anybody else in the outer yard on the day the ritual is held.

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the modified ritual proposed by the State.

The ritual was observed amid tight police security and there were no untoward incidents during the ritual.

A team comprising five DySPs, as many as 200 police personnel and 100 Home Guards stood on guard till the completion of the ritual. CCTVs cameras were installed at strategic locations.