CHENNAI: The Madras high court has declined to interfere with Tamil mantras in Tamil Nadu temples under ‘Annai Tamil Archanai scheme’, rejecting the argument that shrines’ sanctity would be destroyed if not chanted in Sanskrit.
Citing a 2008 judgment of a division bench, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu said there was nothing in the agamas or other religious scripts to prohibit Tamil mantras in temples.
It refused to accept PILpetitioner, Rangarajan Narashiman’s contention that the state was altering practices of Hindu religious institutions in temples.
It is the devotees’ choice to seek for archanas to be performed as per their wishes by chanting mantras either in Tamil or in Sanskrit, it said.
“Judicial discipline commands that when an issue has been decided, unless the circumstances have changed or the decision on the issue is rendered suspect on account of the judgment not taking the applicable law into account or any pronouncement of a superior forum has intervened, the matter may not be revisited,” the court said.
According to the petitioner, most of the temples have been set up according to the agama principles and it has been the age-old tradition for mantras to be chanted in Sanskrit. The very sanctity of the mantras will be destroyed if not chanted in Sanskrit, he said.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/tamil-mantras-in-temples-cant-be-stopped-says-madras-hc/articleshow/85916060.cms
