Sri Durga Malleswara Swamyvarla Devasthanam has made arrangements to felicitate the Vedic scholars across the State. About 350 scholars will be felicitated on October 6.
On October 3, the devasthanam will felicitate 150 archakas (priests) in the district. The temple priests would felicitate archakas to acknowledge their tough grind during the festivities.
Migration
Kanaka Durga temple priests, who toured the district as part of Kanaka Durga Prachara Ratham in 2004, noticed that archakas of small temples were facing many hardships due to lack of patronage in the villages. Many priests were migrating to urban areas in search of greener pastures. The idea behind ‘archaka sabha’ is to encourage priests to continue in their villages. Honouring priests would also to boost the image of temples and priests in villages, says temple priest Srinivasa Sastry.
The Veda Vidwat Sabha, which began as a small initiative decades ago, is an annual event now. A host of scholars and temple priests led by Madduri Venkateswara Yajulu organised the sabha for the first time in 1985. They pooled the amount required for the event and felicitations from their pockets and from philanthropists.
Earlier, there used to be the distinction in cash award to the Vedic scholars. But, the scholars were divided over the reward amount. The problem cropped up with the government’s decision to do away with grades/scales for Vedic scholars in recruitment/promotions. As a result, scholars who are not proficient in ‘ghana,’ also demanded equal pay, while a few others felt that merit should be the sole criterion.
The devasthanam, during the year 2000 and its subsequent years, used to pay ₹3,300 and ₹2,800 to ‘ghanapathis’ and ‘kramapathis’ respectively. The Kanaka Durga temple authorities will now pay ₹4,000 each to Vedic scholars irrespective of their proficiency. Each priest will be given ₹3,500.
