Chidambaram Deekshithar TNCA Umpire

In 2011-12, BCCI Umpire R Rajesh Kannan (BCCI Umpire Rajesh Kannan) visited the famous Nataraja temple in Chidambaram following a cricket training camp he had overseen in Cuddalore. That is when he met S Kalyana Venkatesa Deekshithar who was in his early 30s then. Moved by his interest in cricket, Rajesh Kannan initiated the thought in him of becoming a cricket umpire. He handed him the laws of cricket and mentored him to take up the examination conducted by the TNCA. Kalyana Venkatesa Deekshithar came through the examination and much to his delight began umpiring league matches in Madras. Many times he would take a bus from Chidambaram on Friday night, umpire the matches over the weekend and return on Sunday night. There were times he would come in from Bangalore to umpire a cricket match. At that time, he cherished the ambition of becoming a BCCI umpire. But temple work in the middle of the last decade led to his return to Chidambaram and put paid to the mega umpiring ambitions of the Deekshithar in TNCA cricket!!!

Kalyana Venkatesa Deekshithar belongs to the hereditary family of Pothu Deekshithars who have been performing pooja at the Nataraja temple for over 1000 years. His grandfather performed service at the temple for over five decades, while his father Sethu Mahadevan, who has initiated a large number of students into Vedas, continues to perform archaka service at the temple having started out in the 1970s.

Kalyana Venkatesa Deekshithar learnt the Vedas for about five years from Parameswara Deekshithar in Chidambaram. Given the financial challenges of the time and the huge joint family that he was part of, he pursued his academics and completed MBA in Finance from the Annamalai University. While his father and grandfather along with his uncles continued the temple service, Kalyana Venkatesa Deekshithar went into the corporate world for a few years. It was also a period when there was severe pressure from the HR & CE to take over the administration of the temple and the mood inside the temple was unsettling with most unsure as to how things would unfold. 

As a young school boy, he had been active in cricket and played a number of tennis ball tournaments in Chidambaram. “I was a medium fast bowler and a middle order batsman and an integral part of the team.  With our good performances in those tournaments, our team came to be popularly known as the ‘Koil Team’.” 

He wanted to pursue his cricketing interests but the financial challenges of the time led him into the corporate world.While he could not move to Madras as a teenager to explore his cricketing interests, later on he joined the lower division league team Madras Indians, one run by Indian off spinner R Ashwin and practiced with the team in Madras. However, a ligament tear and aggravation of that injury cut short his playing days in the TNCA league“I had the joy of playing in the league for Ashwin's team and interacting regularly with his father Ravichandran. It was to overcome the disappointment of the leg injury and to continue to be associated with the game that I took to umpiring, inspired by the motivational words of and encouragement from Rajesh Kannan.” 

Following temple activist TR Ramesh’s (Worshippers Society TR Ramesh) ground work at the Chidambaram temple and Subramaniam Swamy’s handling of the case, the court directed handing back the temple to the Pothu Deekshithars earlier last decade after HR & CE had taken charge for a few years. When it was time for the Kumbabhisekam in 2015, the draw of lots at the temple turned in Kalyan Venkatesa Deekshithar’s favour and he was to be part of the committee for the consecration. This meant a lot of preparatory work through the year and he could not prepare for the Umpiring exam that was coming up at that time and he thus let go his umpiring ambitions. 

Having been in the corporate world and on the cricket field the previous decade he is now back full time in Chidambaram to continue the archaka service. During the pandemic, he has also been taking online Vedic Classes for about 15students to try and get the next gen entrenched in the Vedas.

In the past the family had had around 100 days of annual archaka service at the temple. With his two sons becoming eligible for service,  the period of service in a year is likely to double to around 200days. This will keep Kalyana Venkatesa Deekshithar full time at the temple even though the last 12 months has been a tough period for him financially with restrictions on devotees’ entry into temples and consequent reduction in Kattalai. He is hoping that this will turn around soon with the reopening of temples.

While he is now focused on archaka service, once in a while he lets his mind get back into memories of the matches he played in Madras for Ashwins’ team and his days on the cricket field as a proud TNCA umpire that gave  him a lot of joy.