Hyderabad: Status of hereditary archakas restored, chief priest of Chilkur temple

Hyderabad: Temple Protection Movement convenor and head priest of Chilkur Balaji Temple on Thursday urged the state government to revive hereditary archakas in ancient temples of Telangana state including Bhadradri, Vemulawada, Basara etc. The Temple Protection Movement is striving to protect traditional temples and restore rituals by such hereditary families of archakas, he said during a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Thursday.
The state government should take note of the fact that the Supreme Court had responded positively to the writ petition of Dr M V Sundararajan in 1996 that if the government insists on stopping rituals by hereditary archakas then traditional temples, rural temples will be closed, he said. In Telangana, the decision by the Endowments Administration authorities to transfer hereditary archakas is a result of non-implementation of the amended law of 2007, which states that hereditary archakas cannot be transferred. The same amended law has not yet come into force. The head priest presented his LLM thesis “Government Governs Hindu Temples” to Bhatti Vikramarka and requested him to do the needful in this regard. The Deputy Chief Minister immediately assured all possible help in this regard.