Varanasi: Mughal prince Dara Shikoh granted the patta, or deed, for the supervision of the Vishwanath temple, in Varanasi, to the forefathers of mahant Rajendra Prasad Tiwari in the 17th century. Since then, over 10 generations, his family oversaw the ritual tradition of the temple until, in 1983, the Uttar Pradesh government deprived them of administrative powers. The rituals followed there are largely still those the Tiwaris determined, although alterations have been made in recent years.
Tiwari was a strident critic of the Vishwanath Temple Corridor, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s, which was developed after demolishing several ancient temples housing an estimated 286 shivlings. These were uprooted and thrown away; many broke; only 146 could be recovered and are stored at the police station of Lanka, a locality in Varanasi, where their worship is still carried out daily.
The demolition deeply upset Tiwari, who often expressed his angst and anger at the mindless remaking of Varanasi’s sacred spaces. But that was in the past, I thought, believing Tiwari would have forgiven Modi amidst the extraordinary and orchestrated buzz over the idol consecration at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, projected as a symbol of “Hindu civilisational resurrection”. Would he, like many, be celebrating January 22 in a special way?
“I have no attachment to today’s event, which is not a religious one. It is an event for implementing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s agenda,” Tiwari says. He promptly asks: Would I expect him to participate in a religious event sponsored by, say, a film star? Today’s event is no different, for it has been organised to feed the vanity of Modi, the superstar of Indian politics, not to cater to the society’s spiritual stirrings, he says.
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Past prime ministers, too, visited temples, most notably Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi, but never were posters bearing their pictures found in and around temples. This has changed, rues Tiwari, for on Modi’s recent visit to the Vishwanath Temple, a cutout of his was installed at its gates. Forget this, a religious rule will be violated by organising the ceremony of pran pratishtha, or giving life to the idol, in a temple still under construction, a point recently made by the four Shankaracharyas.
Can I read the design behind the violation of the sacred rule, asks Tiwari.
It was logical to complete the construction and inaugurate the temple on Ram Navami, the day he was born, which this year falls on April 16. But, by then, the Lok Sabha election would be underway and the model code of conduct in place. “Modi wants to use Ram to gather votes. Power is Modi’s Ram, his faith, his trade,” Tiwari explains the hurry to organise the pran pratishtha.
Tiwari worries over the disregard, even contempt, shown in reimagining India’s sacred spaces, restructuring them in the manner of malls, where people go to make purchases and spend fun time, or turn them into tourist hubs. Both are attempts at commercially exploiting the sacred, not at evoking devotion for God among visitors. “It’s a mall, not Ram Temple at Ayodhya. The first such mall to be built was the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The third one will come up at Mathura,” he laughs.
Mahant Rajendra Prasad Tiwari. Photo: Special arrangement
The controversy over the consecration ceremony reflects the battle over Sanatan Dharma, the eternal order of those now known as Hindu. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is seeking to wrest from acharyas, or religious preceptors, the power to define Sanatan Dharma, its principles, its rules and, in the future, even what texts constitute the scriptures of Hindus. “This attempt to appropriate Sanatan Dharma goaded the Shankaracharyas into speaking against the January 22 inauguration,” Tiwari argues.
This battle to control Sanatan Dharma has split the acharyas. There are those who owe allegiance to the Sangh, not to the dharma. Tiwari cites the example of the Varanasi-based astrologer who chose January 22 as the auspicious day for the ceremony of pran pratishtha, although he would have known it could not be done in a half-built temple. “There will be benefits for him, as there will be for those whom the Sangh will place in the Ram Temple to carry out rituals,” he says.
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It is a tussle between the temporal and the spiritual. The Sangh wants to acquire religious power in addition to its political heft. “Once this happens, the Sangh’s control over our samaj would be complete,” he predicts. The Sangh seems set to achieve this goal, I said, given the public support for Modi. “Untruth is always more alluring than truth,” Tiwari responds. He lists the 10 values of Sanatan Dharma, such as to tell the truth, eschew arrogance and anger, cultivate forbearance, etc. “All these values are declining, none of these is embodied by Modi, who is turning us into fanatics,” he says.
Tiwari recites verses predicting that Bhagwan would send his avatar whenever the fundamental values of Sanatan Dharma erode and the Hindu society deteriorates morally. Today, though, Tiwari will hope that God bestows wisdom on people so they can distinguish untruth from truth, and comprehend that the display of devotion for Ram today is a ploy to harvest votes – and more.
Ajaz Ashraf is a Delhi-based journalist.
