A sanniyasi (an ascetic or a monk), wearing a headband and neck-piece of rudraksha and boarding a special flight, presents an unusual sight. Recently, when Sri Ambalavana Desikar, the head of the Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam, along with a group of sanniyasis, all from Tamil Nadu, blessed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was prostrating before a Sengol (sceptre) presented by the Adheenam, to be placed in the new Parliament building, the scene drew the nation’s attention to the 18 Saivite, non-Brahmin Mutts or Adheenams in Tamil Nadu.
Parallel to temples
Emerging in the 16th Century, almost as organisations parallel to temples to propagate the philosophy of Shaiva Siddhanta, these rich institutions own innumerable acres of land, properties and branches. They have always remained the patrons of Tamil language, culture, and music. Besides the heads of the Mutts, there were senior and junior monks. The place of worship is vividly described by U.Ve. Swaminatha Iyer, the grand old man of Tamil and a student of Meenakshisundaram Pillai, the poet laureate of the Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam.
“I have never seen so many worshippers performing (Siva worship) simultaneously. The entire pujaimatam was filled with large numbers of performing worshippers, and there was an inexhaustible supply of everything necessary for the rituals. The whole place was one huge vision of a magnificent Siva pujai,” Swaminatha Iyer recalls in his autobiography, which has been translated into English by Czech linguist Kamil Václav Zvelebil.
The heads of the Mutts were also great scholars in Tamil and Sanskrit and penned works of merit on Shaiva Siddhanta and Tamil literature. Swaminatha Iyer himself had learnt from the heads of the Mutts, including Melakaram Subramania Desikar and Ambalavana Desikar. The Mutts are known as Adheenam.
Ooran Adigal, the author of Saiva Atheenagal, citing Tamil literary works, says the title, Adheenam, emerged later, and they were known as Mutts earlier. “There is no reference to the word, Adheenam, in The Periyapuranam or other ancient literary works. The place where Saivite minstrels, including Appar and Sambandar, stayed are referred to as Mutts,” he writes.
The Mutts were established by scholars and spiritual gurus and the heads were addressed as ‘Pandaram’. Subsequently, the honorific, ‘Sannithi’, was added, and they became ‘Pandara Sannithi’ and then ‘Gurumaha Sannidhanam’. Poet Kalamegam, in his work Thiruvanaikka Ula, says there were 18 Saivite Mutts. The name of these Mutts found a reference for the first time in Abithana Chintamani published in 1910. Even though there were Mutts during the reign of Cholas, they disappeared with the passage of time and others faded into oblivion.
“Besides the 18 Mutts established on the religious ideology of Shaiva Siddhanta, there are Veera Saiva Mutts such as Thiruporur, Bommapuram, Mailam and Perur,” says Mathusoothanan Kalaiselvan, a historian and expert in the Bhakti literature.
While the heads of most of the Mutts, including Thiruvavaduthurai, Dharmapuram, Thirupananthal, Suryanarkoil, Thondaimandala Adheenam, Madurai Thirugnanasambandar Adheenam and Kuntrakudi Thiruvannamalai Adheenam are lifelong celibates, the Thuzhavur, Velaakurichi, Nachiyar Kovil and Varani Adheenam are headed by family men.
This is explained in the doctoral thesis, ‘The Sacred Presence of the Guru: The Vellala Lineage of Thiruvavaduthurai, Dharmapuram and Thirupananthal’, by K.I. Koppedrayer, of McMaster University, a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
“Not all Mutts, however, are made up of members who are lifelong celibates, or who are disciples of the head of the institution. In some centres, the members of the madam are linked through kinship ties, and succession rights within the institution are determined by normal familial-based inheritance rights, that is the control of the institution passes from father to son,” writes Koppedrayer. She visited India in 1983, 1984 and 1985 for fieldwork at the three Mutts.
A religious movement
Ms. Koppedrayer, whose research is confined to three Mutts and the Suryanar Kovil Adheenam, points to three features pertaining to the sociological profile of those associated with the institutions. These Mutts are the centres of Saiva Siddhantha, a religious movement that dates back to the 13th Century. “The second feature pertains to caste: only members of four groupings of the Vellala caste and one of the Chettiyar are eligible to be initiated into the spiritual line of each of the Mutts,” she says. They are Pillais, Tondaimandala Mudaliars, Karkatar Pillais, Desikars and Saiva Chettiyars. Even the Tamil scholars who were associated with these Mutts were Vellalas.
The third feature, according to her, is wealth. “Though the members of these centres are celibate ascetics, they control, through their institutions, vast wealth in land, immovable property, investments and so on,” she writes. Besides, they have temples under their control.
When it comes to wealth, these Mutts were almost like the princely states. Ooran Adigal says the Thiruvavaduthurai Mutt owns thousands of acres in southern districts and has 20 temples under its control. A total of 27 temples are functioning under the Dharmapuram Mutt. “They own around 12,000 land parcels, comprising 72,000 acres. Despite the wealth, these institutions have fallen on bad days and are not getting adequate revenue because of the land tenancy law,” says Ooran Adigal.
Though these Mutts are essentially non-Brahmin organisations, they are not anti-Brahmin in their approach.
Ms. Koppedrayer also reiterates the point in her conclusion. “While caste is obviously part of the self-definition of the Saiva lineages, as demonstrated in the paramparai literature, which emphasises the Vellala background of the preceptors, there is little evidence that caste was as vital an issue historically as it might have been at the turn of the Century,” she writes.
The emergence of the Kanchi Mutt as a powerful religious institution with political overreach inevitably gave a tinge of anti-Brahmin attitude to these Mutts. The arrest of the Sankaracharyas of the Kanchi Mutt during the AIADMK government, led by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, and the death of Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal seem to have put an end to the confrontation. The BJP has entered the scene and shed some light on their importance.
Published - June 22, 2023 10:44 pm IST
