After standoff, devotees allowed to worship from Chidambaram temple stage

After an acrimonious stand-off between Podhu Dikshithars and officials of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department, devotees on Wednesday began worshipping from the kanagasabai medai (holy stage) at the famous Lord Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram.

The Podhu Dikshithars, who manage the temple, had put up a notice last week that devotees will not be allowed to stand atop the holy stage and pay obeisance from June 24 to June 27 on the occasion of the ongoing festival of Aani Thirumanjanam. However, devotees and the HR&CE department took objection to the decision of the Podhu Dikshithars and asked them to give access to the stage to them.

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Despite multiple rounds of talks held by officials, the Podhu Dikshithars refused to budge from their stand, saying they will allow devotees on the stage only from June 28. However, a team of HR&CE officials on Tuesday night, brushing aside objections from the priests’ side, climbed onto the stage along with a few devotees and worshipped Lord Natarajar.

And on Wednesday morning, devotees were seen worshipping from the stage. This is the second time that the priests have imposed a ban on devotees climbing atop the stage and offering prayers to the deity at the temple – the ban imposed during Covid-19 pandemic was revoked only in 2022 after repeated requests from the HR&CE department officials.

Chidambaram Police have also booked 11 Podhu Dikshithars for allegedly preventing HR&CE officials from discharging their duties.

The standoff between the priests and the government isn’t new – they had several times in 2022 after the Podhu Dikshithars failed to show the temple accounts to HR&CE officials citing a Supreme Court judgement which said they have the right to manage the place of worship.

Defending officials’ act of entering the holy stage on Tuesday, HR&CE minister P K Sekarbabu said the state government will continue to work towards ensuring that devotees are not inconvenienced at the temple. “The Podhu Dikshithars think that it is their own temple. It is not the case. Devotees should be respected. We will try to bring the temple under the HR&CE department,” he added.

The Podhu Dikshithars maintain that HR&CE officials have no “locus standi” to interfere in the affairs of the Sri Sabanayagar Temple as it is not a “public temple.” In 2014, the Supreme Court set aside a 2009 Madras High Court order that allowed the appointment of an officer by the HR&CE department to oversee the administration and ruled that Podhu Dikshithars will run the temple.