Q. It seems there are three facets to the ongoing dispute at Pashupatinath. The first is the nationality of the priests appointed by the government. The second is the appointment procedure. And the third, which the public hasn’t debated as prominently as the first two, is the financial aspect. Which of these is the main cause of the dispute?
Chaudhary: My understanding is that the third aspect is the main reason. It is an irony that we comment on an incident without studying its cause, or the main problem involved. Behind every incident, there is a background, a context. No incident happens abruptly. This time too, the incident that occurred or is developing at Pashupatinath is not just because of the resignation of the main priests and the appointment of new ones. That is not the issue.
Religious institutions have their own unique features and principles and pose their own challenges.
The law and tradition have to be taken hand-in-hand. Pashupatinath is a temple that has been shouldering centuries-old traditions. There was an effort to govern the temple through an Act. The Pashupati Act came into existence 22 years ago, but the temple itself is 2,200 years old.
The Pashupati Area Development Trust took birth to regulate a temple with deep-rooted traditions. It was a very good move at the time.
Q. When was the Trust constituted?
Chaudhary: 1986. It was first called Pashupati Development Committee. If I´m not mistaken, it became Pashupati Area Development Trust in 1995. At that time obviously the royal family was active in religious affairs. The Trust was constituted under the patronage of King Birendra, and under the chairmanship of Queen Aishwarya. After the change of 1990, the royal family was distanced from Trust activities. Some amendments were made in the Act to include a provision bringing in the minister for culture as ex-officio deputy-chairperson of the Trust´s governing council in order to make it more democratic. The Trust became a political wing of the ministry of culture. In 2000, Queen Aishwarya wanted to reactivate the Trust. At that time, there was rising concern among Indian pilgrims over mismanagement at the temple. They (the royal couple) also went to India and visited famous shrines there and I think they were inspired by them. The Trust was then reconstituted and that’s when I took on this responsibility.
Q. You were talking about the financial side of the ongoing dispute.
Chaudhary: I am coming to that. When I took on the responsibility of member secretary, the temple was in a mess. The records of revenue from the temple’s lands were not properly managed. Revenues from the temple itself were not institutionalized. The revenue were shared between the Bhattas and the Bhandaris. This was despite the fact that in 1997 the Trust had decided that 40 percent of the temple revenues should go into the Trust for development work. The decision was not enforced. It was later revised, reducing the share of the Trust to 25 percent. Even that had not been enforced. The Bhandaris had moved the Supreme Court requesting that tradition be protected. The Court had not taken any decision. In 1997, a Rs 2 billion masterplan was finalized by the Trust. In 2000, the government endorsed it. But there had been no effort to implement the masterplan. It was a total mess. There was hardly any fund available in the Turst. I had two priorities: the first was to immediately initiate the masterplan, and the second to manage the donations and the [funds coming in from the performance of] special worship. When we started to manage the donations, there was stiff opposition and non-cooperation from the Bhattas and Bhandaris. So much so that the main Bhatta at the time resigned. The Bhattas face pressure from the Bhandaris on one hand and from the Trust on the other. They reach the conclusion that they should resign when they cannot deal with this pressure. I think the same thing has happened this time also.
Q. You mean the Trust wants to introduce transparency, while the Bhandaris want to keep everything opaque.
Chaudhary: Exactly. Now, after Bhattas resign, making new appointments is a normal process. But there are standard criteria for doing that.
After the people’s movement in 2006, the Act pertaining to the Trust was amended. I was laid off in May, 2006. The amendment came after that. But no amendments were made that were necessary for regulating the temple. The only amendment was that the prime minister would become patron of the temple instead of the king, and the minister for culture would be chairman instead of the queen. Along with the amendment, the tradition of appointing new priests through a decision of the royal priests on the basis of recommendations by the incumbent Bhattas also disappeared. There were no alternative arrangements for making such appointments. This has now become a problem. There is no post of royal priest now. The Trust has not made it clear to the public how the appointments were made this time. There was no need to make the appointments with such opacity. I don’t think the appointments were made on the basis of personal interests. It was an act of inexperience.
Q. Let’s get back to the financial side of the problem.
Chaudhary: This is a dispute over bheti-ghati (offerings at the temple). In 2004, the Supreme Court issued a directive to the Trust to prepare a set of regulations to manage the temple.The apex court said tradition cannot be scrapped through a decision of the Trust. We started to work to prepare the regulations. We proposed a salary, allowances and even a secretariat for the main Bhatta, as we thought that he should be able to focus totally on the worship and should not have any financial or other worries. We had come up with a draft provision for a salary of about Rs 150,000 per month for the main Bhatta. The draft also provided salaries to the other Bhattas and the Bhandaris. We were laid off before the regulations were finalized.
Q. What is the size of the temple’s revenue?
Chaudhary: Despite opposition, we managed to introduce a donation box in the temple during my tenure. About Rs 4 million was collected in the donation box in a year. We also managed to make other changes. In the past, the Trust received only Rs 11,000 for worships that invovled Rs 1.1 million. We increased the share of the Trust to 24 percent of revenues for smaller worships and 40 percent for bigger worships.
Q. Why were South Indian Brahmins traditionally appointed to the posts of Bhattas?
Chaudhary: The rituals in the temple are based on Tantrik scriptures. South Indian Brahmins were recruited because they have Tantrik knowledge. The two Nepalese who were appointed as Bhattas recently do not have Tantrik knowledge. I have heard that the main Bhatta, who is continuing at the temple despite his resignation, did not give Dikshya initiation to the two because of that.
If the dispute is not solved in time, bigger disasters might happen. A demand to allow non-Hindus entry into the temple will surely surface soon. The country is secular now.
Q. How can the dispute be solved?
Chaudhary: Everyone should honor the court’s verdict. The state should make its stand clear and ask the main Bhatta to continue with the worship. The temple has five Bhattas. One is the main Bhatta, three are the other Bhattas, and one is the Basuki Bhatta. Among those recently appointed, one is a Bhatta and the other is the Basuki Bhatta. The former main Bhatta is still functioning.
Let me also tell you another interesting fact. The income of the temple is converted into gold and stored in the temple treasury, which is located under the roof of the main temple, on the day of Balachaturdashi every year. There is no record of the temple’s revenues in the years before 1961. From 1962 to 1999, there was gold in the treasury worth just Rs 7.8 million. That is the pittance that the Bhattas and Bhandaris had left for the temple treasury.
Only two people know what is in the treasury – one is the representative of the Bhattas and the other is the Bhandaris’ representative. The state should bring to light what is in the treasury. Rather than keeping the funds there as an unproductive asset, they should be used for social service.
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