Four Decades after he took over the reigns, Thanjavur Prince is looking for people support from Corporates in different areas of Temple Administration
Babaji Rajah Bhonsle was at St. Peter’s School in Thanjavur when his Grand father passed away exactly 40 years ago. It was the second death in the family in successive years after his father had passed away just a year earlier. It is not yet one week after the glorious celebration of the birthday of Raja Raja Chozhan at the Brihadeeswarar temple, one where his Royal Family has been the trustees for Centuries. On a day when he was to meet the Dharmapura Aadheenam in Mayiladuthurai and a day ahead of the beginning of the events relating to the Consecration of Thanjai Maa Mani Narasimha Divya Desam in Vennatrankaraihttps://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/08/thanjai-maa-mani-divya-desam.html), the Prince sat down at the Palace for a long chat looking back at his teenage phase, the dark years of the Big Temple and his plans for the 88 temples under his administration.
“I was too young then, not even in my adolescence. In that phase, one is usually brave and fearless and believes that he can conquer the world. And right from my childhood I had a very positive outlook to life. My Grand Father always reiterated the message that one should be true to God and that as the Trustee of a temple, we should never go after name or fame. We should do what we have been blessed to do in this life” Babaji Rajah Bhonsle told this writer of one of the most important messages of his life that he learned from his grandfather that has stayed with him every day of his life since the passing away of his dear Thatha.
British take away the Maratha Power
The British had taken away the entire kingdom from them. Everyone acknowledged that this was one of the best ruled regions of all the kings but at the blink of an eye, the powers of the Babaji were grabbed by the British. There was a big chattiram under the Palace where guests from other temple towns and head of Mutts would stay but that too was taken away by the British leading to accommodation issues. More than anything else, the personal family of the Rajah of Thanjavur was impacted the most by the ruthless acquisition of all the properties of the King. In the century that has passed by, the Palace has not been compensated for the sudden loss of their finances.
Refuses Governor Post, Remains at God's feet
70 years ago, the then CM of TN, C Rajagopalachari, offered the Governor’s post to the Rajah of Thanjavur, but Kanchi Maha Periyava directed the Rajah to continue the temple service.
While he had a fearless outlook, the external scenario had turned grim in the 1970s and 80s in addition to the internal gloom arising out of the two deaths in his family in a short period of time. “There were no devotees even at the Big temple and the Mariamman temple, let alone the other temples in Thanjavur. Income had completely dried. Thanjavur was an agri driven region but as the original inhabitants began to leave to the larger cities, that too began to take a hit. Swami Malai was renowned for Bronze making but with people staying away from temples and the income of temples dwindling, those businesses too went under the carpet. From a time when we handed out the salary two years in advance, we had unpaid salaries to our staff for 15 months. But even in that dark phase, I was positive about orchestrating a turnaround in fortunes and always had an inner strength,” the Prince said of how he now remembers the scenario in the 88 temples under his administration.
1980s Aippasi Sathaya Vizha
He has had minimal rest over the past fortnight with preparation for the Sathaya Vizha celebrations taking a lot of his time and then this week he has had to oversee the final phase of work ahead of the consecration, next Monday, at the Singaperumal Divya Desam in Vennatrankarai. This is symbolic of how dramatically fortunes have turned around. When devotees visited the two-day celebrations of Raja Raja Chozhan in several thousands, his mind turned back to the 1980s “Mutts had supported the Sathaya Vizha in the past but they too stopped. We did not have money to conduct the festival. In those years, all we did was to have a tent in front of the Nandi and that’s where we celebrated the Aipasi Sathaya Utsavam. We did not even have flower garlands for Swami and Ambal and there were bats flying all around.”
He has had minimal rest over the past fortnight with preparation for the Sathaya Vizha celebrations taking a lot of his time and then this week he has had to oversee the final phase of work ahead of the consecration, next Monday, at the Singaperumal Divya Desam in Vennatrankarai. This is symbolic of how dramatically fortunes have turned around. When devotees visited the two-day celebrations of Raja Raja Chozhan in several thousands, his mind turned back to the 1980s “Mutts had supported the Sathaya Vizha in the past but they too stopped. We did not have money to conduct the festival. In those years, all we did was to have a tent in front of the Nandi and that’s where we celebrated the Aipasi Sathaya Utsavam. We did not even have flower garlands for Swami and Ambal and there were bats flying all around.”
While the festivals at the Big Temple have reached a new high with devotees thronging in large numbers to present their offerings and to participate in all the events with big financial contributions, the Prince has a fresh set of worries quite different from the challenges he faced in the mid 1980s when he took over the reign. “There are challenges relating to shortage of permanent service personnel in temples. Devotees are thronging select temples leading to overcrowding there but most of them ignore the smaller sized temples. Recovery of dues from temple owned lands continues to be a challenge. There are those paying rent that they paid decades without an appropriate increase. I want to increase the income multi-fold through collection from temple lands” Prince Babaji Bhonsle tells this writer even as he directs his staff to follow up on the bags of paddy from the agri lands.
The running of the 88 temples by the Thanjavur Palace has been undertaken largely through the income derived from the Big Temple and Mariamman temple in Punnai Nallur, the two high earning temples.
New Initiatives
Over the last year or so, he has embarked on a new and thoughtful initiative. In the five consecrations that have taken place during this time, he has worked along with the donor devotee to pay a certain sum towards the medical expenses of 20 of the service personnel. The Veera Narasimha Perumal Consecration on Monday morning will be the sixth where the devotee donor will be supporting the temple personnel in their health requirements. The Prince of Thanjavur looks at this with a great deal of delight. Also, as part of the consecration celebrations, he has requested the devotee donors to also present vastrams to the service personnel in addition to the priests of the temple. Almost all these devotees have found satisfaction in the fact that alongside restoring historic temples, they have also been able to play a ‘healthy’ role in the lives of the service personnel at the temple.
Over the last year or so, he has embarked on a new and thoughtful initiative. In the five consecrations that have taken place during this time, he has worked along with the donor devotee to pay a certain sum towards the medical expenses of 20 of the service personnel. The Veera Narasimha Perumal Consecration on Monday morning will be the sixth where the devotee donor will be supporting the temple personnel in their health requirements. The Prince of Thanjavur looks at this with a great deal of delight. Also, as part of the consecration celebrations, he has requested the devotee donors to also present vastrams to the service personnel in addition to the priests of the temple. Almost all these devotees have found satisfaction in the fact that alongside restoring historic temples, they have also been able to play a ‘healthy’ role in the lives of the service personnel at the temple.
Technology at the forefront
He has been ahead of times on the technology front. Over two decades ago, he had begun maintaining cash book through proper tech software on the desktop. He has always stood for transparency and right from his early days, the accounts of the temples have been in public domain. Tenders are also in Public so everyone can participate and see how it works. To save the electricity bills that forms a high percentage of the temple expense, he has been advocating for the use of Solar energy and believes that its implementation will significantly reduce the electricity charges.
No special entry/ No ticket based entry
During his life time, he is also keen to do away with special entrance and ticket based entry at his temples and create strong SOPs that will be in order at his temples for the next generation of administrators and devotees.
During his life time, he is also keen to do away with special entrance and ticket based entry at his temples and create strong SOPs that will be in order at his temples for the next generation of administrators and devotees.
Positive Transformation over the four decades
57 year old Prince Babaji Bhonsle has been at the helm for four decades now and says that from a time when there was no money to pay salaries to staff, there has been a positive transformation with even the medical expense of the service personnel being taken care of now. In the just ended Sathaya Utsavam, all the staff of the Big Temple were presented with Vastrams as part of the celebration. During the evening street procession last Saturday evening, 100s of traditional artistes led the way dancing around the four big streets of Thanjavur. Sambhavanai and sacred food was presented to them that day for their participation. It was the Palace’s way of protecting and encouraging village artistes and keeping their tradition going.
57 year old Prince Babaji Bhonsle has been at the helm for four decades now and says that from a time when there was no money to pay salaries to staff, there has been a positive transformation with even the medical expense of the service personnel being taken care of now. In the just ended Sathaya Utsavam, all the staff of the Big Temple were presented with Vastrams as part of the celebration. During the evening street procession last Saturday evening, 100s of traditional artistes led the way dancing around the four big streets of Thanjavur. Sambhavanai and sacred food was presented to them that day for their participation. It was the Palace’s way of protecting and encouraging village artistes and keeping their tradition going.
Saurashtra clan clean the Big Temple
Similarly, ahead of the Sathaya Utsavam, members from the Saurashtra clan cleaned the temple including the utsava idols. It is such public participation in temple activities that has long been an integral part of Rajah’s way of administering the temple. His model of administration has always been inclusive roping in people from different walks of life to be involved in some form in temple service.
Prince's Vision for the Next Gen
The next phase in his temple journey is to strengthen and solidify the 88 temples further by streamlining the processes and ensuring that the heritage is protected. His children have not had their lunch as they are waiting for their ‘Princely’ father. He does not have too much time on his hands for he has to leave to meet the Dharmapuram Aadheenam in the next half hour or so.
Even as he heads home for his first meal of the day at 3pm, he leaves with the message that the biggest revolution he wants to create in his lifetime is to transform people in their thoughts towards God. There are so many dilapidated temples that date back over 1000 years but devotees continue to pump in money only into the rich temples. He points to a few photographs of one such dilapidated temple under his administration but even here devotees hand out donations to the Big Temple and the Mariamman temple at Punnai Nallur while most of the other temples are neglected by them in terms of day to day maintenance.
Two GMs from the Corporate World???
For 40 years, he has been working on the ground overseeing the activities at these temples but now he is keen to have GM (General Manager) kind of officials who can administer the events and take care of the daily activities. He wonders if the leading corporates in TN would be able to allocate one staff towards temple administration for one year as part of their CSR activity. He is also keen to explore partnerships with corporates where in the CSR arm would assign service personnel to the historic temples in Thanjavur, who would take upon themselves ownership in certain areas in the temple space for one of his biggest challenges is the core administration. He is hoping that that corporate personnel will be able to train his staff on various aspects of administration as well as educating them on the sthala puranam and the rich heritage of each of these temples. There are also key challenges relating to collection of rent from temple lands. At the moment, he has had to micro manage every activity resulting in precious loss of time in chalking out and implementing his visionary plans for the 88 temples.
For 40 years, he has been working on the ground overseeing the activities at these temples but now he is keen to have GM (General Manager) kind of officials who can administer the events and take care of the daily activities. He wonders if the leading corporates in TN would be able to allocate one staff towards temple administration for one year as part of their CSR activity. He is also keen to explore partnerships with corporates where in the CSR arm would assign service personnel to the historic temples in Thanjavur, who would take upon themselves ownership in certain areas in the temple space for one of his biggest challenges is the core administration. He is hoping that that corporate personnel will be able to train his staff on various aspects of administration as well as educating them on the sthala puranam and the rich heritage of each of these temples. There are also key challenges relating to collection of rent from temple lands. At the moment, he has had to micro manage every activity resulting in precious loss of time in chalking out and implementing his visionary plans for the 88 temples.
Wants to Preach Dharma and Values
With his experience of four decades in administering the 88 temples, he wants to turn a preacher of values and dharma sometime in his life in order to influence devotees to a positive way of life. He says that historically, the temple system was refined and there was precision in temples. Those values have been lost over the last few decades even as one is witnessing a devotional wave in temples in TN. He wants to dramatically increase the pracharams in the temple space on the values and dharmas and believes that people can be positively influenced through these.
With his experience of four decades in administering the 88 temples, he wants to turn a preacher of values and dharma sometime in his life in order to influence devotees to a positive way of life. He says that historically, the temple system was refined and there was precision in temples. Those values have been lost over the last few decades even as one is witnessing a devotional wave in temples in TN. He wants to dramatically increase the pracharams in the temple space on the values and dharmas and believes that people can be positively influenced through these.
There is no source of revenue for the Thanjavur Palace. On the other hand, as the Trustee, Babaji Rajah Bhonsle has been spending huge amount of money towards the administration of the 88 temples, that has been a perpetual drain on the historical savings. He has ever remained positive even during the most tragic of times when he lost his father and grand father in successive years in his teens. The Prince of Thanjavur is confident that he will be to wade through the financial and labour challenges protecting and safeguarding the rich legacy of these temples and passing it on to the next generation.
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