Temple Priests Next Gen Mismatch Societal Impact

Temple Priests sending their daughters to Engineering Colleges and sons to Agama Patshalas is creating a severe mismatch and will hurt our society big time in the coming decades

If corrective steps are not taken now, it is likely that the Patshala bred boys in the next gen will not find acceptance among the next gen corporate girls even from traditional temple households

         One of the Pancha Bhootha Sthalams

A trend has been emerging in the temple circles in Tamil Nadu in recent years which is likely to have a  massive societal impact in the coming decades. Almost without fail, the female descendants of the priests have been getting into Engineering colleges while a good number (though not in large percentage) of the male descendants of the priests have joined the agama patashalas for initiation into traditional pooja processes.

With the trend unfolding, the female descendants after four years of professional degree have been getting into corporates including many taking the overseas offers.  As contrasted with the above, the boy after completing 8-12 years of Patshala education joins his father in continuing the hereditary archaka service in a remote temple location

It has emerged that almost none of daughters of the archakas are agreeing to marry a boy from the traditional archaka household for they are now well settled in the corporate world. 

2021-22: Daughter heads Madras Engg College, Son to Remote Agama Patshala

This academic year, a priest from a famous Saivite Saint Poet praised temple location in a bid to fulfil the academic wishes of his daughter searched across the state and finally managed to find a seat in a private engineering college in Madras. His son not yet into his teens has discontinued his school education and moved into 8 year agama patshala education in a remote location.

                      

In the last couple of years, a priest with over four decades of service in a Paadal Petra Sthalam (one of the Pancha Bhootha Sthalam) approached a priest of his age in one of the most famous Saivite temples in Tamil Nadu asking for the hand of the latter’s daughter for his son. This was summarily rejected by the girl’s priest father. 

One of a kind - Pazhur Patshala's Neelakanta Sastrigal

Five years ago, Neelakantan Sastrigal who quit a high paying patshala in Madras to move to Pazhur on the western outskirts of Trichy to restore the Patshala that was lying in a dilapidated condition told this writer that he would lead his two daughters in the traditional path and hand them to a traditional household. That is a big step in the right direction but Neelakantan is a rare exception in every aspect of life(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/09/pazhur-patshala-revival.html).

Despite being fully aware of the likely mismatch and the negative impact for their own sons, the priests of many historical temples have over the last few years taken the step to send their daughters into Engineering Colleges. While we are just beginning to see the trend of priests’ daughters exploring the corporate path in their lives and consequently rejecting boys from a temple background, an environment that they had grown up with during the first 17years of their lives. 

In light of this scenario, the male descendants too have in recent times been pursuing academics and the engineering path to overseas jobs. 

But for those male descendants who are pursuing patshala education, it is likely that even the daughters of the traditional priests will give them a pass when it comes to marriage.

If a large percentage of the daughters of priests in historical temple locations make the move this decade into engineering colleges, it is likely that by the turn of the next decade the sons of the priests, if they take to agama education and join the hereditary temple service, will have little hope of finding a bride. Some of the priests in remote temples in TN have in recent times gone searching for bride in other states including in the temple towns of Karnataka and the North.

There is an increasing trend towards daughters of priests getting into corporates and sons continuing the hereditary temple service.

As yet another service to the society and in the interest of their own sons, it would make sense for all the priests in Divya Desams and Paadal Petra Sthalams to send their daughters into traditional education say Sanskrit, Art and Crafts, Vaishnavite and Saivite Courses. That way the women from the next gen of the priests’ family can stay back in temple locations and their hand given to the next gen priest.

Else, it is likely that most of the next gen priests will remain unmarried in the decades that follow.