My Gods , Your Gods and Our Gods Mrinal Pande
The ugly fracas over the unceremonious removal of traditional Indian priests from the precincts of the Pashupatinath temple by the Maobadi troops of Pushpkamal Dahal , ‘Prachand’ , is mercifully over now . And prayers and rituals of worship to Lord Pashupatinath have been resumed after sharp protests both within and outside Nepal . The whole episode has left the devout on both sides of the Indo Nepal border anxious .Lore has it that Adi Shankaracharya , in an attempt to mark the boundaries of the faith and also integrate Hindus under the Satvika tradition (that frowned on animal sacrifices and offering liquor at the temple), had begun the tradition of appointing Namboodiri priests from Kerala at the Badrinath temple in the central Himalayas , Maharashtrian priests for Rameswaram temple in the south and Kannadiga priests for the Pashupatinath temple in Nepal. Ever since (for two and a half centuries) , the Seer at the Sringeri Peeth in Karnataka , has been recruiting suitable priests for the temple in Nepal after receiving a formal request from the Pashupatinath Development Authority at Kathmandu . The priests are usually selected from among the Bhatt Brahmin families only after their erudition and adherence to the philosophy of Adi Shankaracharya , the founder of the Peeth , have been tested . Since time immemorial , much before Adi Shankaracharya undertook his historic march from Kerala to the Himalayas to integrate followers of the Sanatan Dharma , ordinary folk on both sides of the Indo Nepalese border in the central Himalayan region, have been sharing dozens of local and family gods ( Kul Devta ) and demi gods whose temples dot the whole area . Fairs are regularly held , processions are taken out and the pilgrims housed in Dharmshalas at the temple precincts without any fuss year after year . On Makar Samkranti on 14th January this year , believers will gather to celebrate a fair devoted to lord Chaumu at Pancheswar in the beautiful Champavat valley in Uttarakhand . Chaumu is the divine lord of the entire region and is known as the lord of justice . Each one of Chaumu’s seven brother has a temple of his own . Four of these are in Nepal and three in India . In Tanak pur at the temple of goddess Poornagiri both the Nepalese and the Indians have been making offerings to the Devi who is their family goddess . During the nine day Navratri festival during Fall , the Indo Nepalese worshippers of the goddess Ransaini similarly at the gather across the border in Nepal . The Goddess is the family deity ( Kul Devi ) of thousands . The tribes in the region have their own shared gods . Comrade Prachanda , what do we do about that ?
