Rameswaram: Even as the consecration of the Sri Ramanathaswamy temple here was performed on a grand scale with utmost religious fervour on Wednesday, a controversy brewed over the alleged ‘sidelining’ by the temple authorities of the visiting Sankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt, Sri Jayendra Saraswathy.
While the pre-consecration rituals including the ‘yaga saala pujas’ that commenced on Jan. 15 with invocations to Lord Ganesh (Vigneswara Puja), went off very well in front of the ‘Amman’ shrine over the past four days, the seer attended the ‘pujas’ on January 19. But “due respects were not accorded to the Kanchi seer”, sources said. Instead, temple functionaries kept a tab on his movement, which deeply hurt the Kanchi seer, sources said.
Consequently, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi on Wednesday morning kept away from the main consecration function.
After a brief meeting with Kanchi mutt functionaries here in the afternoon, the acharya merely went up to the ‘Artha Mandapa’ in front of the presiding deity’s sanctum, handed over the golden ‘Naaga Kavasam’ (as gift to adorn the hood of the Shiva Linga) to the temple priest, offered prayers to the Lord and quickly left for Kancheepuram. The acharya’s non-participation in the main function left devotees shocked.
