Former chief priest of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Ramana Deekshithulu has fired a fresh salvo at the Andhra Pradesh Government and the TTD Board particularly asking “why the temple kitchen (potu) was closed for 25 days against Aagama Sastra provisions when the intention was only to remove four boulders, as being claimed, from the ancient construction”.
Expressing displeasure at the TTD Board/State Government’s act of closing the sacred kitchen and taking up ‘repairs’ there without consulting anybody having authentic knowledge on Aagama Sastra or taking necessary permissions, Mr. Deekshithulu termed it was a “sin committed against the presiding deity. Offering ‘unholy prasadam’ prepared outside the potu to the deity was a greater sin” he said. Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, he explained that the temple kitchen was constructed in about 1150 AD in the first periphery (praakaaram) around the main temple and it was in perfect condition. However, “the potu in ‘paakashala’ was closed for 25 days to remove some stone bricks from the wall and also some boulders from the floor in the name of repairs”.
He sought to know what was there beneath the boulders of the archaeological treasure (potu) and how preparation of ‘prasadam’ outside the potu was justified by the TTD Board when its preparation was a sacred exercise which should be viewed and touched only by the cook and the priest without even taking the aroma generated from the preparation, as per Aagama Sastra, Mr. Deekshithulu said.
On the statement of the TTD Board that a pink diamond adorned on the presiding deity had broken/damaged due to coins thrown from a distance by the visiting devotees, Mr. Deekshithulu said it was a completely “wrong statement as diamond would not be so weak”. He said “a similar diamond was auctioned at Geneva recently for a huge bidding and there are allegations that it as the one from the temple”. He demanded a probe into the ‘unholy’ goings-on in the temple.
