Bounty for Mysuru temples, devotees

At a time when the ruling Congress party is treading soft-Hindutva and AICC president Rahul Gandhi is resorting to a temple run as part of his election campaign 'Janaashirwada Yathre' across the state, the district administration has taken steps to streamline the system in the Chamundeshwari temple, atop the Chamundi hill, here, besides extending additional facilities.

Deputy Commissioner D Randeep has urged Commissioner for Religious and Charitable Endowment C P Shylaja to put an end to the two 'Mangalarathi' plate system in the temple in view of public interest. In a letter written to the Commissioner for Religious and Charitable Endowment, the DC has stated that a meeting of the archaks (priests) and paricharaks (other staff) was held in the presence of the officials of the Religious and Charitable Endowment department and the principal of the Maharaja's Sanskrit College to sort out the issue.

"In the meeting, held as per the instruction of the Commissioner for Religious and Charitable Endowment, both the archaks and paricharaks have agreed to do away with the two 'mangalarathi' plates," the letter states. Due to a rift between the archaks and 'paricharaks', there was a system of having two plates since some time, for separate collection of 'dakshina'.

It can be recalled that the Deputy Commissioner had suspended a priest, Srinivasan, for keeping a 'mangalarathi' plate above the offering box (hundi), hindering the devotees from putting the offerings into the hundi.

Breakfast, dinner

The DC, also Administrator of the temple, has introduced breakfast and dinner as part of 'dasoha' (mass feeding) for the devotees from March 1. Till now, only lunch is being served. As per the decision taken in a meeting held recently, breakfast will be served from 7.30 am to 10 am, while dinner will be provided from 7.30 pm to 9 pm.

According to a press release, issued here, recently, the menu includes vegetable bath and rava kesaribath on Mondays, khara and sweet pongal on Tuesdays, bisibelebath and kesaribath on Wednesdays, sweet and spicy avalakki on Thursdays, vegetable bath and jaggery rice on Fridays, vangi bath and rava kesaribath on Saturdays, tomato bath and jaggery rice on Sundays for both breakfast and dinner.

Besides directing the officials to serve quality food to the devotees, the DC has instructed them to depute two security personnel at the entrance of the Dasoha Bhavan to ensure that only devotees and tourists are allowed inside. He has stated that local residents of the Chamundi Hill village and shopkeepers should not be allowed.

He has also directed the officials to install CCTV cameras at the kitchen, laddu preparation place, dining hall, entrance and queues to maintain transparency.

Renovation

The Endowment department has also proposed additional funds for the renovation and conservation of eight temples under the Palace Board, including the Chamuneshwari temple, on the premises of the Mysuru Palace.

The proposal includes, a grant of Rs 45 lakh for Sri Shwethavarahaswamy temple, Rs 18 lakh for Prasanna Krishna temple, Rs 8.5 lakh for Sri Anjaneya and Ganapathi temples, Rs 16 lakh for Sri Chandramoulishwara temple, Rs 68 lakh for Sri Bhuvaneshwari temple, Rs 77 lakh for Sri Gayathridevi temple, and Rs 84 lakh for Sri Thrinayaneshwara temple.

The first phase of the conservation works on Sri Shwethavarahaswamy temple and Sri Gayathridevi temple have already completed and this proposal is for the second phase of works.