RELIGION BULLETIN-NEPAL: Corruption Row Rocks Nepal’s Holiest Shrine

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Suman Pradhan

KATHMANDU, May 31 1998 (IPS) - Nepal’s most important temple, the large, gilded, triple-roofed ‘Pashupatinath’, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, draws tens of thousands of devout Hindus from India and Nepal.

The 17th century temple on the Bagmati River in Kathmandu city, buzzes from before day-break to night-fall with the activities of devotees, bathing in the ‘sacred’ river, making offerings or cremating their dead.

Religious fervour reaches a crescendo in February and March, when masses of people gath to celebrate ‘Shivaratri’, the “birthday” of Shiva, one of the most awesome gods in the Hindu pantheon, revered as the destroyer and creator.

Presiding over the days’s proceedings is the chief priest or ‘Mul Bhatta’ who has sweeping powers of control over the temple’s daily affairs, including the handling of the offertory of Nepal’s wealthiest temple.

For the past few years, stories of corruption and the greed of its priests has plagued the ‘Pashupatinath’ shrine. Like in Nepali politics, where people are demanding accountability from their leaders, the religious establishment has also been under attack.

Until last week, Subrahmanyam Shastri Markandeya, who had been a priest in the temple for the past 31 years, was the ‘Mul Bhatta’, conducting the prayers for devotees on ‘Shivaratri’.

“He promptly did the puja I had paid him for, finishing it within seconds,” recalls Sumitra Devi, a devotee who visited the shrine on ‘Shivaratri’ this year. “And then he immediately began another on behalf of the person behind me in the line.”

His detractors say that Markandeya’s main interest was to collect as much as he could, specially since he knew that it was unlikely that he would be able to retain his post of ‘Mul Bhatta’ next year.

“He would have known that his days as the chief priest were numbered,” says Ram Mani Acharya who campaigned against Markandeya.

Three months after ‘Shivaratri’, Markandeya was replaced by another priest, Ananta Krishna Yog Shastri. Last week, Nepal’s constitutional monarch King Birendra took the unprecedented step of formally accepting his resignation and appointing Shastri as the new Mul Bhatta.

This was the first time in ‘Pashupatinath’s centuries-old history that the monarch had intervened in temple matters, let alone the appointment of the chief priest.

Nepal is the world’s only ‘Hindu country’ with 85 percent of its 21 million people belonging to the majority community. The religion influences all aspects of life here, social and cultural.

Pashupatinath’s priests are sought after by rich devotees who pour in millions of rupees in cash, gold, silver and diamond- studded jewellery in exchange for the privilege of having them perform ‘puja’ or prayers.

Since the offerings were unaccounted, Markandeya was alleged to have kept to himself some 500,000 dollars each year from the collection. Though just unsubstantiated rumours, they snowballed into a campaign that mde his fall from grace inevitable.

In newspaper columns and news reports, devotees routinely accused the Mul Bhatta of authoritarian powers and his penchant for keeping all the rich offerings for himself and his family.

“The people are not going to tolerate corruption any more,” said an official of the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), a government-appointed body which has the primary role of conserving and administering the temple. “It was too bad for the Mul Bhatta that he failed to see the writing on the wall in time,” he added.

As the public pressure for accountability grew, the PADT introduced a set of new regulations in April this year to curtail the powers of the temple priests. The regulations demanded that all the temple riches and offerings be registered in a book and the smallest of offerings be accounted for.

Instead of obeying the new regulations, Markandeya grossly misread the public mood and openly defied the PADT’s attempts to enforce accountability. From mid-April when the regulations came into force to last week, Markandeya did not register even once with the PADT, an official said on condition of anonymity.

In the face of heavy public clamour for his ouster, Markandeya hit back with a threat to resign from his postion. As is

required by religious tradition, he submitted his resignation to te King in the hope that the King would intervene to save his job.

King Birendra stepped in, but to summon a meeting and asked three other priests, who had also resigned along with Markandeya, to take back their resignations. One of the three priests was Ananta Shastri.

As soon as Shastri withdrew his resignation, it was clear that Markandeya would be replaced. Within a few days, the King formally accepted Markandeya’s resignation, ending his seven year reign at the temple. Markandeya and his family have refused to speak to the press about the entire controversy.

The new Mul Bhatta is also keeping silent for fear of jeopardising his job. He is already under tremendous pressure from fellow priests in the temple to ignore the new regulations regarding accountability, PADT officials say.