Srirangam Prasadam Stall High Court raps HR & CE

The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has directed the HR & CE to not commercialise the 'sacred food' and to not lease out Prasadam Stalls through auctions 

Six years after this section featured a story on the HR & CE converting ‘Sacred Food’ into a lucrative business inside the Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the HR & CE to not commercialise 'Prasadam' and to not lease out the Prasadam to outside individuals through auctions. In that story in September 2018, this section had highlighted the fact that the food Counter had been auctioned for around Rs. 1crore at the Srirangam temple,  a mind boggling Rs. 30000 a day while at the Varadaraja Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram, it had fetched the HR & CE Rs. 65 Lakhs. This section had in that story brought to light the fact that food made outside the Madapalli and not presented to the Lord was being wrongfully sold as ‘Prasadam’ https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/09/srirangam-prasadam-stall.html).

Historical Practice at the Srirangam Temple

Till the 1970s, paniyaram at the Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam was presented to the Lord and brought to Sri Pandaram(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/09/sripandaram-krishna-jayanthi-utsavam.html), where it was given to the devotees.  In that story, this section had stated that it was a tradition for the food presented to the Lord to be distributed amongst the devotees present based on the quantity available. It had also been a historical tradition and belief that prasadam of the God is to be consumed in minimal quantity and devotees typically shared even this minimal quantity handed to them with other devotees who missed out. The traditionalists who understood the process waited near the flag post at the Ariya Bhattal Vaasal and picked up the real ‘hot’ prasadam. 

With the HR and CE gaining dominance in the 1970s, the sacred food began to turn commercial. The focus shifted to generating revenue out of the open spaces in the temple. Out of nowhere, a small 200 feet space opposite the Garuda Sannidhi was converted to a food counter disguised as a Prasadam stall. But even the HR and CE would not have visualized the potential of this new revenue model, one that was to turn into a big money spinner for them across the large temples in Tamil Nadu. 

As decades passed by, the value of the stall went through the roof. The menu on offer had a luring element to it, so as to entice the devotees into believing that this was from the God. The devotees fell for it, the young and old, the modern and the traditionalist. Laddu, Athirasam, Chakkarai Pongal, ‘Mysore’ Paakku and Puliyotharai gave devotees the feel that it was Prasadam. Little did they know that this was food that was neither made at the Madapalli nor presented to the Lord. 

Sales sky rocketed and the HR and CE cashed in heavily on this opportunity to bolster its income from the temple.  It had become a full fledged business inside the temple. Over a 3-4 decade period, the HR and CE, across all temples in Tamil Nadu, coined the vulgar title of ‘Prasadam’ stall misguiding devotees to consume outside made eateries as the Lord’s Prasadam.

First the Devotional Wave, Now the Food Wave

Wrongs over several decades have now been formalized as the rights of the temple and have become part and parcel of the system, misguiding the devotee in the process. But like so many other twists that have happened inside temple in recent decades, the concept of prasadam and the way it has been positioned and now viewed too has undergone a dramatic change. A temple trip is now incomplete without the consumption of the now popular delicacies of the respective temple. A long distance had been travelled since the 1970s and this section had said in September 2018 that it would require a herculean effort to undo the wrongs that had become an integral part of everyday life at the temples in Tamil Nadu. 

That herculean effort has come now in 2024 thanks to a case filed interestingly by one who was refused the right to participate in the auction at the Ranganathaswamy temple. Last fortnight, the judge made the same point that this writer had highlighted in the story in 2018 and rapped the HR & CE on its knuckles by questioning the department's practice to commercialise the sacred food by leasing it to private individuals where those that are selling are doing it as a commercial activity to make money.  The court noted that whatever is offered in the temple as prasadam must have its own unique identity and a tradition as 'Prasadam' refers to the blessings of the deity. The court also questioned the quality of the so called prasadam.

This Wednesday on the occasion of Uriyadi Utsavam, a cook who prepares the sacred food at the Srirangam temple told  this writer that only Sun Flower oil is being used for preparation of the dishes that are sold at the Prasadam stall, a live testimony to the issue of quality of these prasadams. 

In response to the court's direction, the HR & CE has promised the court to look into the possibility of preparing the prasadam on its own through the sacred madapalli without outsourcing to private individuals.

This section will track the developments.