Author: IANS
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: September 4, 2009
URL: http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Indian+priests+paraded+naked+at+Pashupatinath&artid=SPqTN6gAXvI=&SectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&MainSectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&SEO=NEpal,+Pashupatinath,+priests,+Karnataka&SectionName=pWehHe7IsSU=
The Pashupatinath temple row took an ugly
turn in Nepal Friday with a mob assaulting the two newly appointed Indian
priests, stripping them naked and tearing off their sacred threads regarded
as mandatory for Brahmins.
Girish Bhatt and Raghavendra Bhatt, the two
newly appointed Indian priests, were brought from Karnataka state in India
this month to continue the nearly 800-year-old tradition at the revered Pashupatinath
temple in Kathmandu of employing priests only from the orthodox southern states
of India.
The two hapless men were thrashed within the
temple premises Friday as they were readying to worship the deity from Saturday.
Eyewitnesses said about eight to 10 men, armed
with iron rods, stormed a secret room in the temple where the two priests
had been confined two days ago, fasting and undergoing a purifying ritual
so that they would be able to undertake the ritualistic worship from Saturday.
The invaders broke open the padlock on the
door of the room, dragged the two stunned priests out and beat them up. The
attackers also stripped the two men naked and forcibly took video pictures.
Then, in a final insult to the two priests,
their sacred white thread were torn off. The priests wear these sacred threads
to proclaim that they are Brahmins and have undergone traditional rituals.
"The attackers tried to drag them away,"
said an eyewitness who did not want to be named. "But the abduction bid
was foiled after the people in the temple raised a hue and cry and locals
gathered."
The two shaken priests have been taken to
a safe place, temple officials said.
The attack inside the temple comes after protests
began Sunday with at least three organisations banding together to oppose
the appointment of Indian priests.
They have formed a committee to oppose the
appointments, saying at a time Nepal is writing a new constitution, Nepali
priests should be employed instead of Indians.
Though the protesters say they have no political
affiliation, locals said the attack was led by the Young Communist League,
the dreaded strong arm of the Maoists that had spearheaded a similar attack
last year.
Both the new priests' appointment and the
attacks on them come at a time the row is being heard in court.
For the first time in the history of the 5th
century temple, the Mahasnan ritual - the ritualistic bath of the deity -
is in jeopardy with the priests saying they feared to carry on with their
duties in the absence of security.
The Indian priest vs Nepali priest row was
triggered by the earlier Maoist government last year that sought to stop the
old tradition of hiring Indian priests for the Pashupatinath shrine.
However, the move raised widespread concern
in India with major political parties there asking Nepal not to politicise
religion and not to hurt the sentiment of two billion Hindus worldwide.
The protestors have said they would keep up
a blockade of the Pashupatinath area and take stronger action if the Indian
priests are not sent back.
Of the five Indian priests who originally
served at the shrine, three have already resigned due to the mounting political
pressure.
Both the protesters and the Nepali government
allege that the other side is trying to grab the offerings made at the temple
daily that runs into thousands of rupees.
