MADURAI: Observing that the court cannot interfere in religious festivals and ceremonies of temples unless there are constitutional violations, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court dismissed a batch of petitions filed seeking direction to conduct the consecration at Thanjavur Brihadisvara Temple exclusively in Tamil.
A Bench comprising Justices M Duraiswamy and T Ravindran noted that the petitioners have not placed any convincing material or proof as to why the consecration and other allied functions to be held on February 5 should be performed only in Tamil.
This would mean the consecration would be held in both Tamil and Sanskrit as submitted earlier by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to the court. The judges also pointed out that the government had said that during Yagasalai Poojas (to be performed from February 1 to 5) and Maha Abhishegam (on February 5), Thirumurai Parayanam - Panniru Thirumurai, Abhirami Anthathi, Thirupugal - would be done in Tamil.
“Since the State also assures that Tamil language would be given its due prominence in the said consecration as per Agama principles as done earlier and that Sanskrit has not been given any special status, particularly by ignoring Tamil, we do not find sufficient cause to accede to the case projected by the petitioners,” the judges held.
They observed, “The court should be hesitant and reluctant in interfering with religious festivals and ceremonies of temples unless it is established that they are in violation of the provisions of the Constitution of India.”
Also recording the government’s contentions that sufficient othuvars have been engaged to chant Tamil Thirumurai and that ‘dhaanam’ would be distributed to each and every worker of the temple without any caste discrimination, the judges dismissed the petitions. They further directed the government to file a compliance report regarding the consecration, within a month from the ceremony, to the Registry.