TNCA Umpire and Chidambaram Deekshithar Kalyana Venkatesan passes away

Had cherished dream of becoming a BCCI Umpire

Kalyana Venkatesan had played in the TNCA league for R Ashwin's team and had been active in the Deekshithar role almost right till the end

MBA Grad and TNCA Umpire Kalyana Venkatesa Deekshithar of the Chidambaram Nataraja Temple passed away this week at a young age leaving the Deekshithars of Chidambaram shell shocked. A couple of years ago he had had a stroke and had lost his taste buds since.

Exactly four years ago, this section had featured a story on how he conisdered it a great blessing to be continuing the hereditary service as a Deekshithar at the historic Chidambaram temple though he did rue missing the opportunity to write the exam to become a BCCI umpire.

As a young school boy, he had been active in cricket and played a number of tennis ball tournaments in Chidambaram. He told this writer in 2021 that he was a medium fast bowler and a middle order batsman and an integral part of the Chidambaram team.  "With our good performances in those tournaments, our team came to be popularly known as the ‘Koil Team’.” While he could not move to Madras as a teenager to explore his cricketing interests, later on he joined the lower division league team Madras Indians, one run by India off spinner R Ashwin and practiced with the team in Madras.

Into his 30s, he had turned into a TNCA Umpire last decade following the seeding of the idea and interest by Ranji umpire Rajesh Kannan(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2024/03/rajesh-kannan-ipl-umpire.html) who also mentored him to take up the examination conducted by the TNCA. He would often take a bus from Chidambaram on Friday night, umpire the matches over the weekend and return on Sunday night. and had cherished ambition of becoming a BCCI umpire but a positive turnaround in the fortunes of the Chidambaram temple following the Supreme Court verdict secured through the efforts of temple activist TR Ramesh (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/02/tr-ramesh-temple-activist.html) brought him back into temple Kainkaryam. He was an integral part of the committee that handled the Kumbabhisekam a decade ago just when the BCCI umpiring exam was around the corner and hence had to let go of his big umpiring dreams. 

While he was focused on archaka service, once in a while he let his mind get back into memories of the matches he played in Madras for Ashwin’s team and his days on the cricket field as a proud TNCA umpire that had given him a lot of joy. 

Kalyana Venkatesa Deekshithar belonged to the hereditary family of Pothu Deekshithars who have been performing pooja at the Nataraja temple for over 1000 years. His grandfather performed service at the temple for over five decades, while his father Sethu Mahadevan, who initiated a large number of students into Vedas, has continued to perform archaka service also for over 50 years.The Deekshithar's family have around 200days of annual service at the temple.

During the pandemic, he took online Vedic Classes for about 15students to get the next gen entrenched in the Vedas. 

Anirudh Deekshithar, a descendant of the Pothu Deekshithars, told this writer on Saturday that Kalyana Venkatesan Deekshithar had continued to performed Kainkaryam at the temple and was active almost till the end but his untimely death in his 40s has left everyone shocked. 

PS: This writer too had umpiried matches with the Deekshithar in the decade gone by.