Unique ritual held in Nellore

Nellore: The Muni Vahana Seva which involves the chief priest carrying a Dalit devotee, a ritual said to be 2,700 years old, was performed for the first time at the ancient Talpagiri Ranganadha Swamy temple in Nellore on Thursday. The ritual, said to be popular in Tamil Naidu, was revived by Hyderabad Chilkur Balaji temple priest C.S. Rangarajan at the Ranganathaswamy temple in Jiyaguda at Hyderabad in April this year. He was present at Nellore to guide the local priests.

As part of the ceremony, chief priest Kilambi Jagannadha Charyulu of the Sri Ranganadha Swamy temple carried a Dalit devotee Venkaiah Swamy of Nellore around the temple before taking him into the sanctum sanctorum for darshan. Mr Rangarajan said the prime objective of this gesture was to propagate equality. He said the ritual coincided with the 1,000th birth anniversary celebrations of the Vaishavaite saint Ramanujacharya, who preached equality of all human beings.

“We performed the activity like an utsavam (festival).” Hundreds of devotees and members of VHP and Samajik Samarasta, a wing of RSS, led by VHP local unit head Menta Ramamohan Rao took part in the event. Mr Ramamohan Rao said they intend to perform the Muni Vahana Seva in all Ranganathaswamy temples across the state and the country.