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Udayavar Thittam - part 2

From the Bhakti List Archives

elayavalli • July 10, 2002 


Sri:
SrimathE Ramanujaya Nama:
AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigalE Saranam
appan thiruvadigalE Saranam

Dear group

First I would like to apologize for the use of the word Harijans in 
my earlier post, appropriately pointed out by the moderator.

Most of the material that is covered in this series, is from Koyil 
Olugu, a book called Impact of Sri Ramanuja on Temple Worship, and 
few other tamil works on Divya Desam. Some people had shown some 
interest in the way Sri Ramanuja went about setting up the management 
of the temple, hence the short series. Please do feel free to correct 
or add to the material presented. 

The SenApati Durantara (the Chief of all groups) has many duties 
starting from early morning till the end of the day. He is also known 
as Sri KAryam. His duties re:

1. First after morning rituals, visit the temple and pray to the Lord.
2. Inspect the Kitchen
3. Inspect the daily supplies such as the earthen pot that was 
delivered, the provisions, and other material that go into the 
preparation of prasadam. He will assign the duties to the head cook 
and the ekAnkis their respective duties for the day.
4. After inspecting the kitchen, he would listen to the recitation of 
the Vedas and other Sanskrit works at the main shrine. He would ask 
the ekAnki in the shrine to carry the essentials like camphor, 
sandal, kasturi, tiruman etc to the archakas.  will also do the same 
for the thAyAr shrine.
5. He then goes to the garden and inspect the flower, to see if the 
plants are watered and kept well. 
6. after praying to Sri Senai mudaliyAr, he would meet the 
representatives of all the 19 groups, the ekAnkis and SAttada mudali 
to lecture on the importance of each groups duties. 
7. Then he oversees the puja inside the main sanctum

The same is done for the evening puja. The SenApati Durantara, gets 
some rest in the afternoon. During the Festival times, there would be 
no rest for anyone involved in the temple management. This is because 
of additional work involved in preparing the utsava vahanam etc. 

The SenApati has few deputies who would help him in smooth 
organization. they are:

1. Head of the Storehouse: His duty is to make sure all the material 
such as rice, lentils vegetables are delivered in time and in 
required amount. There would be 10 types of vegetables, fruits, etc 
that will have to be received and inspected. He is also incharge of 
feeding all the domestic animals, like temple elephants, cow, pigeons 
etc. 

2. Supervisor of the temple structure: He has to make sure the walls 
and gopuras are clean and free of parasitic plants. he work load 
increases during the utsavas as he has to build and decorate the 
pandals and other sheds etc.

3. Head of the Misc Store house: This person is in charge of non-
edible stuff like camphor tiruman, plant seed, flower seeds for the 
garden, fertilizer etc.

4. head of the temple lands: in charge of sowing seeds in the temple 
lands in proper seasons, supply rice, lentils etc to the store house, 
collect revenues from the leased lands 

5. head of the cow-shed: he would be in charge of managing the cows, 
feeding, grazing and milking them every day.

6. EkAnkis: they are 4 in number, couple of them help in the kitchen 
and store house. Another would help the senApati inside the sanctum 
and the fourth would assist the head of the temple lands. All 4 would 
still be under the direction of senApati.


Sri MudaliAndan held this office first under the order of Sri 
Ramanuja. his descendents held the title for more than 200 years 
until the Muslim invasion. After the restoration of the temple, the 
senApati was shared between the families of Bhattar and mudaliAndan. 


to be continued ................

adiyEn 
Venkatesh Elayavilli
 






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