Mannar Koil Narasimha Gopalan Hereditary Trustee

Periya Nambi descendant seeks status of Hereditary Trustee

He has been donning multiple roles at the Kulasekara Azhvaar Rajagopalaswamy temple over the last 15years including that of the lone Archaka

If he is officially anointed as the Trustee, he will have to relinquish the role of an archaka at the temple

Continuing his spate of cases in the high court, Mannar Koil’s PS Narasimha Gopalan, a descendent of Periya Nambi Acharya has filed a case pleading with the court to direct his nomination as the hereditary trustee of the Kulasekara Azhvaar Rajagopalaswamy temple where his forefathers had performed the Srikaryam service for centuries till that was taken away just under a 100 years ago. In addition to this, he has also filed a case in the High Court restraining the HR & CE from appointing Politicians as trustees of the temples in TN. Currently, only a few temples in TN such as Srirangam, Madurai Meenakshi Amman and Kapaleeswar  have prominent individuals as Trustees.  He has also asked for a board to be placed in each temple announcing the details of the trustees including their contact numbers so aggrieved devotees can contact them for solutions.

The three tiered Kulasekara Azhvaar Rajagopalaswamy temple in Mannar Koil is located 5kms from Ambasamudram off the Tenkasi highway. The temple is named after Kulasekara Azhvaar who spent the last years of his life here performing service and attained Moksham here. There is a separate Flag Post for the Kulasekara Azhvaar Sannidhi. 

The Lord is seen in three forms - standing posture at the ground level, sitting posture in tier 1 and in a Sayana Kolam in Tier 2 under the Ashtanga Vimana. In recognition of Rajendra Chozha’s big contributions to this temple, this place was referred to as Rajendra Vinnagaram. Inscriptions refer to Rajasimhan donating several pieces of land and Jatavarma Chozha Pandya as well as Nayak kings making contributions to the temple.

Over the last decade, Narasimha Gopalan has filed several petitions in the Madurai High Court starting with the one on abusive depiction of the ‘Vaishnavite Thiruman’ in movies and public places.

Historical Inscriptions of their 'Srikaryam' appointment

In his latest petition, he has referred to the centuries old inscriptions dating back to the period when this region was referred to as Rajendra Vinnagaram. In the inscriptions, the then king had assigned the Srikaryam rights to the Periya Nambi clan. He has also stated that over the last several centuries, he and his forefathers have not quit the services at the temple and have been associated with the temple without a break. 

Doubles up as Priest at Rs. 250

With no priests in the region willing to take up the archaka role for a few hundred rupees, Narasimha Gopalan has also been doubling up as the archaka since 2005 at a salary of Rs. 250 which after a decade was increased to Rs. 750. His father had earlier served as an archaka for several decades at a salary of Rs. 55 that went up to Rs. 135 at the start of this century. 

In line with the teachings of his father, Narasimha Gopalan cites the verses of Kulasekara Azhvaar to reason out his logic for staying away from the lure of a more lucrative city life and being attached to the Lord at Mannar Koil.

Narasimha Gopalan performs the role of an archaka in the mornings and evenings, prepares the sacred food for the Lord donning the hat of a cook and turns into a gardener watering and plucking flowers from the huge garden that he himself had created from scratch and performs Samasrayanams as a Periya Nambi Acharya for his disciples. 

Rejects a lucrative overseas offer

In times, when sthalathars, theerthakarars,  adyapakas, vedic pundits and priests have all moved out of hereditary temples over the last many decades seeking greener pastures elsewhere, this 29th descendent of Periya Nambi has not travelled past the Tirunelveli region in decades for he is too attached to the historic Kulasekara Azhvaar Rajagopalaswamy temple. He does not know what a city life is like. He has not worn a shirt and continues to sport a tuft.

A few years ago, he had received a luring offer to perform services in a temple overseas. Had he accepted that and gone there just for a few years, his financial status would have seen a big positive upturn. But he resisted the temptation for he had long ago decided to commit himself to the Lord of Mannar Koil. When he was reminded again of this lucrative prospect with the suggestion that all temples are the same and that he would still be performing service to the Lord, he retorted to that person asking whethere 'Kulaseakar Azhvaar's Thiruvarasu would be present there in that overseas location'!!! And with that ended the discussion on that topic!!

He says in the petition that his forefathers have been taking care of the conduct of all the Utsavams and the daily poojas at the temple for several centuries. It was only in the 20th century that the HR & CE took over the administration of the temple. Over the last decade or so, he has revived, with the financial support from his sishyas, a few of the Utsavams including Theppotsavam and Pavitrotsavam that had been historically performed at the temple.

The High Court has directed the JC of the temple to arrive at a decision on the appointment of Periya Nambi clan as the hereditary trustees within 8 weeks. On the politicians as trustees, the Court has asked the HR & CE to provide details of the trustee in all the temples under its control.

If Narasimha Gopalan gets the order in his favour as the Hereditary Trustee, he would have to relinquish the role of archaka at the temple for he cannot don both the roles at the same time. However, it would be a big challenge for him to find a Vaishnavite Archaka who accepts to take charge of the daily poojas in such a remote location even if he is offered a lucrative remuneration.

While Politicians as trustees may be a serious issue that has cropped up over the last couple of decades, there are not enough traditionalists with knowledge in historical remote towns to take charge as Trustees as defined in the  HR & CE act for the remote temple towns in most cases are even short of priests and 'sacred' cooks and associated personnel. Hence, traditional trustees taking responsibility of and overseeing the activities at the remote temples is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future, unless the original inhabitants decide to make their way back to their 'home towns'.

(Over the last decade, while he has filed several cases and these have been increasing over time, there has not been positive progress in any of these cases)