School for priests in Adi Shankaracharya’s homeland Kerala turns 50

Did you know that the pujas and rituals at the Badrinath Temple in Uttarakhand are performed exactly the way they are performed in the temples of Kerala? Yes, such intonations can be heard in no state other than Kerala. At a school called Thanthra Vidyapeetham in Kerala, teenage boys learn the temple tantra shastra or the science of temple rituals. They learn a style of performing prayers that are practised only in Kerala… or in temples that were installed by Adi Shankaracharya. It was Adi Shankaracharya who built Lord Badrinath Temple almost 2,000 years ago. And this is why the prayers at Badrinath have intonations that are different from the prayers performed in temples in the rest of India. You may hear such intonations in Haridwar and some Ayyappa temples elsewhere where the priests are from Kerala. Located on the banks of the river Periyar in Aluva in Kochi, the Thanthra Vidyapeetham is celebrating its 50 years this year. There’s a marked difference between Kerala Vedic chanting and those done outside the state, senior faculty Srinivasan Chengoth said. In the Kerala style, certain prayers are performed softly while some are performed loudly. Since Lord Parasurama had set up 108 temples here, the rituals are in keeping with the tradition initiated by Adi Shankaracharya. The chants that you hear outside Kerala are different. Thanthra Vidyapeetham stands apart from rest of the schools. Here, students undergo seven years of rigorous training and when they leave the school, they are fit to become chief priest of any temple. Since they get a post-graduate degree in Sanskrit it qualifies them to teach in any school. The school is unusual, not just in the way it teaches students, but also in the way it chooses them. Unlike the usual selection process, the child’s horoscope is checked for admission. He is selected only if his horoscope indicates that he can complete the entire course and become a priest. Vice-chancellor of the institute, Mannarsala Subramanian Namboothiri, said that the teachers at Thanthra Vidyapeetham are well-versed in jyotish shastra (astrology). If there is any indication that the child will not get into the profession or not use the knowledge that is given to him in the school, he will not be admitted. Not more than 10 students are admitted every year. Most of the students who come to the school have some exposure to temple rituals. To apply here, they must have passed Class 10. And since they must become priests in temples, they should have completed their upanayanam or the sacred thread ceremony of Brahmins. Once they are in school, the first few months are spent on learning the basics of puja mantras, how the morning and evening chanting is done, said Balakrishna Bhat, the principal. “We don’t expect much from the students when they join us,” he said. “Many are sent either because they have no interest in academics or their family background is such that this is a way out. But once they come here, those who have the potential pick up fast. The first few months are spent teaching them basics in puja mantras, the morning and evening chanting done etc. Since they sit and learn with their seniors, they pick up fast. We don’t expect miracles. They learn through continuous practice, but we give them time to slowly pick up. After all, there are hundreds of mantras to learn and that too in Sanskrit.” Gopalakrishna Kunji, the institute’s executive director, said that students learn simple living and self-reliance – how to sit and sleep on mats, survive on simple food, how to cook and maintain the kitchen, keep the premises clean, and how to conduct themselves when they accompany senior priests who go outstation for pujas and other rituals. Students undergo a lot of rigour in their learning journey. It is not that all students are able to complete seven years. If any student shows reluctance or inability to go beyond the third year by which the curriculum gets tough, they are given the option to leave. Balakrishna said that in the first year, the prospective priests are taught how to do puja. There are seven deities and each has a different ritual. The puja rituals for Lord Vishnu are taught first because His invocation, they say, is all-encompassing. Once the students perfect that, it is easy to teach them how to do prayers for the other deities by telling them what is different from Lord Vishnu’s. The base textbook for the students is Tantra Samuchayam that was written way back in the 15th century by Chennas Narayanan Nampoothiri. It prepares the students to understand all aspects of temple science --- right from land identification to the structure of the sanctum sanctorum. The learning process includes what kind of deity is to be installed, when, where and how. What kind of invocations must be done, in which direction the deity must face, etc. Srinivasan says the students are taught how they should behave with the devotees. They must learn to be tolerant and soft-spoken while listening to the devotees who come to them for advice. The teachers try to instil in them the understanding that when a devotee comes before God, he prays for help or seeks blessings. Thanthra Vidyapeetham was started at a time when winds were blowing against ancient traditions and a lot of Brahmin youngsters were moving away from traditional practices. With a few generations not learning the science, there are only a few teachers now. The school was set up to address the dearth of scholars in 1972. A student who passes the school gets a degree issued by the Maharshi Sandipani Rashtriya Ved Vidya Pratishthan, Ujjain, which comes under the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development. The institute plans to spread its expertise with other institutes willing to run courses on ancient Indian temples and Vedic science. Anchor: Surjan Singh Audio production: Prateek Kapoor