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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Special Correspondent
While one school of thought is against any attempt to disturb the existing structure of the temple in any manner whatsoever, another is convinced that alterations could be made subject to the condition that they conformed to the principles laid down in the `Vaikhanasa Agama Sastra' which governed the rituals, customs, usages and architecture of the Tirumala temple. The arrival of two leading seers at Tirumala— Tridandi Srimannarayana Chinna Jeear and Srirangam Narayana Jeear— at a time when hectic activities are on in the TTD administration to give a final shape to the project, has sharpened the debate. In fact views are differing in the TTD itself on whether the two senior Acharyas were invited by the TTD for confabulations or whether their visit merely coincided with the event. While the TTD Trust Board chairperson, K. Chalapathi Rao, has reportedly denied that the TTD had invited Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeear to give his counsel, the swami who is camping now on the hills brushed aside Mr. Rao's statement and insists that he is on an official invitation from the TTD. However, TTD engineers have shown the Chinna Jeear all the plans and blueprints. He is said to have agreed to personally study the topography of the entire site where the `maha prakaram' and other structures are proposed without giving his views. A close aide of the Sriranga Narayana Jeear has strongly rejected any move to `tamper with' any part of the temple structure on the ground that it would disturb the `ashta dikbandhanam', i.e., the position of different "devathas, dik-palakas" installed in their respective places, corners, directions etc., in relation to the sanctum sanctorum and the main deities, centuries ago when the temple was constructed and consecrated. He said any demolition, reconstruction and alteration of the temple would lead to catastrophic consequences both for the country, its rulers and to whoever "perpetrated the sin," he said quoting verses from "Mareechi Maharshi's'' works which he said was being closely followed in the Tirumala temple. He wondered why the alterations were becoming imperative to meet the increasing pilgrim influx (50,000 daily on an average) and cited the example of Disney Land in the U.S. where about five lakh people converged daily and moved around freely without any complaint of congestion or security threat. Cannot the TTD manage a crowd of at the most one lakh in the Tirumala temple? The Guruvayoor temple in Kerala was another example. The authorities there were not interfering with the temple customs and structure, etc., in the name of crowd management though it was being closed eight times daily— each time lasting at least 30 minute— for cleansing operations and for offering `neivedyam'.
Are they not running it efficiently, he asked and said the defect was in the crowd management system compounded by the VIP darshan factor in Tirumala. Quoting the Seers, their aides urged the TTD to invite the scholars of Vaikhanasa Agama and Mathadhipathies of the Sri Vaishnavite sect from all over the country for a wide-ranging debate and go by their views instead of merely depending on the TTD's "temple advisers'' who might not give a fair opinion as they were on its monthly payrolls.
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