TIRUPATI: To paraphrase the bard, ‘Heavy lies the head that wears too many crowns.’ This is the predicament of Lord Venkateswara, the reigning deity of Tirumala, who is weighed down by the heavy crowns donated by his rich devotees. Though a case of too much of a good thing, it’s creating a headache for the priests who are worried about the safety of the Lord.
Consider this. Not less than seven magnificent crowns make up for the jewellery kitty of Lord Venkateswara, including 11 tonnes of gold, ornaments and other precious jewels. But, what is bothering the priests and Vedic pundits is the overweight of the offerings, particularly the crowns.
A temple priest said the 8-ft Moola Viraat (the principal idol of the Lord) is adorned by not less than 60-70 kg of gold ornaments on any given day. “If the crown itself weighs over 30 kg, the chances are that cracks may develop on the presiding deity’s idol,” he said. Exacerbating the situation, temple authorities are also running out of stock of punugu (civet) and chandana (sandal) which prevent the cankers and give life to the Lord’s idol.
To lighten the burden on the Lord’s head, a priest suggested that instead of going for record-breaking crown offerings, devotees should think of donating jewels. “It’s not easy for a single priest to hold the heavy crown and place it on the Lord’s head. Lest something happens, it will hurt the sentiments of lakhs of devotees,” he pointed out.
In fact, the heavy crown headache has a past. A retired TTD official revealed that they had to remodel a “vajra kireetam” (diamond-studded crown) in 1986 to protect the deity. “The crown’s weight was around 20 kg which we thought would be a heavy burden on the Lord and reduced it to 13 kg,” he said.
He felt the devasthanams should issue an universal appeal to the devotees not to donate heavy crowns made up of gold, diamonds and precious jewels.
Even as TTD mandarins were gloating over the rich offer from an anonymous devotee from Chennai who donated a 20-kg, Rs 7.5 crore worth “vajra kireetam” sometime back, came the heaviest of them all when mining baron and Karnataka tourism minister Gali Janardhan Reddy donated a crown worth over Rs 42 crore made out of 34 kg of pure gold, studded with 70,000 diamonds and a 890-carat emerald in June this year.
TOI
Consider this. Not less than seven magnificent crowns make up for the jewellery kitty of Lord Venkateswara, including 11 tonnes of gold, ornaments and other precious jewels. But, what is bothering the priests and Vedic pundits is the overweight of the offerings, particularly the crowns.
A temple priest said the 8-ft Moola Viraat (the principal idol of the Lord) is adorned by not less than 60-70 kg of gold ornaments on any given day. “If the crown itself weighs over 30 kg, the chances are that cracks may develop on the presiding deity’s idol,” he said. Exacerbating the situation, temple authorities are also running out of stock of punugu (civet) and chandana (sandal) which prevent the cankers and give life to the Lord’s idol.
To lighten the burden on the Lord’s head, a priest suggested that instead of going for record-breaking crown offerings, devotees should think of donating jewels. “It’s not easy for a single priest to hold the heavy crown and place it on the Lord’s head. Lest something happens, it will hurt the sentiments of lakhs of devotees,” he pointed out.
In fact, the heavy crown headache has a past. A retired TTD official revealed that they had to remodel a “vajra kireetam” (diamond-studded crown) in 1986 to protect the deity. “The crown’s weight was around 20 kg which we thought would be a heavy burden on the Lord and reduced it to 13 kg,” he said.
He felt the devasthanams should issue an universal appeal to the devotees not to donate heavy crowns made up of gold, diamonds and precious jewels.
Even as TTD mandarins were gloating over the rich offer from an anonymous devotee from Chennai who donated a 20-kg, Rs 7.5 crore worth “vajra kireetam” sometime back, came the heaviest of them all when mining baron and Karnataka tourism minister Gali Janardhan Reddy donated a crown worth over Rs 42 crore made out of 34 kg of pure gold, studded with 70,000 diamonds and a 890-carat emerald in June this year.
TOI
No comments:
Post a Comment