Thiru Kannapuram Sowri Rajan Bhattar

Thiru Kannapuram Sowri Rajan Perumal Divya Desam is one of the only two Divya Desams to be praised with a 100 verses by Thiru Mangai Azhvaar, the other being Nachiyar Koil praised at Thiru Naraiyur Mani Maada Koil. Azhvaars called it ‘Wealthy Kannapuram’ and ‘Gold Walled’ City. The roar of the Sea could be heard at the temple. Kulasekara Azhvaar says that Thiru Kannapuram was Home to ‘Master Craftsmen’. 

"காலின்மணி கரை அலைக்கும் கணபுரத்து கருமணியே"

The once popular Veda Patshala that functioned from the North Mada Vilagam was demolished last decade. Several Vedic Scholars had graduated from here with a couple of the renowned Hindu school (Thiruvallikeni) teachers hailing from here. The South Street behind the South Mada Vilagam too resonated with Prabhandham recital. Close to Sirpathingals served at the temple just over half a century ago and this has come down to single digits now. 

The greenery referred to in the praise of the Azhvaars is still intact. As one walks through the newly laid tar road from Thiru Pugalur (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/11/thiru-pugalur-agneeswarar-temple.html) to Thiru Kannapuram, one finds huge fertile fields on either side. However, there is no hint of any of the temple’s glorious past. The original inhabitants have long left the city selling their lands at dead cheap rates. At the Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore, the Melam artiste who presents every day during the pooja occasions hails from Thiru Kannapuram but he too like several hundreds of residents had moved into larger cities several decades ago and has almost never gone back to his native town. The devotee crowd is sorely missing with the Maasi and Vaikasi festivals being the only two where some of these traditionalists visit their home town. In recent times, even the conduct of these festivals has hung in the balance with the lack of people to carry the Lord on street processions and issues surrounding that. It is now 16years since the last Samprokshanam. The towering Raja Gopuram wears a forelorn look, the walls inside the temple have faded but a renovation exercise does not seem to be starting anytime soon. The Brahmotsavam itself that had come to a halt was only recently revived but with the Pandemic that too has not taken place in the last couple of years.

72 year old Sowri Rajan Bhattar is an exception at this historical temple town for he has spent almost his entire seven decades at Thiru Kannapuram. He has been serving Sowri Rajan Perumal for the last 52 years having joined the temple at a monthly salary of Rs. 40 in 1969. For the first sixty years of his life, he lived in a thatched hut on the North side of the huge Temple Tank that one finds right in front of the temple.

His forefathers had performed Kainkaryam at the Divya Desam since the early 19th century with a record of 1827 in Olai Chuvadi handing them the rights of Sthaneegam at the temple. In the first half of the 19th Century, his Great Great Grand Father, Venkatapathi Iyengar, had managed the entire activities at the Divya Desam. For over 100 years this family performed service as the exclusive archaka at the temple taking care of both the Perumal and Thayar Sannidhi as well as all the utsavams. When the temple came under the ‘Scheme of Arrangement’ in 1863, his Great Grand Father, Sowri Perumal Iyengar became a trustee of the temple. It was during the period of his Grand Father, Raju Bhattar, who died very early at the age of 35, that the family also took the support of another archaka family to split the kainkaryam between Perumal and Thayar sannidhis.

Sowri Rajan Bhattar’s appa, Srinivasa Bhattar, performed kainkaryam as an archaka for 60years having joined the temple service at the age of 13. 

Sowri Rajan Bhattar did his SSLC in Thiru Kannapuram following which he learned the agamas from Vanathirajapuram Srinivasa Bhattar. He was not interested in higher education and did not purse college. He was initiated into Veda Parayanam at a young age by TS Rajagopalachariar Ganapadigal. Despite the financially challenging times of the 1960s with all the Divya Desams in Tamil Nadu going through a torrid phase, Sowri Rajan Bhattar was clear that he would dedicate his entire life to serving Sowri Rajan Perumal. 

How did he manage to lead a happy life at a monthly salary of Rs. 40 “We led a contended life with our requirements being minimal. I spent almost each day of the year at the temple with my mind focused on serving the Lord and not on the financial returns. Not once did the miniscule salary bother me and never did I think of leaving the temple kainkaryam to join work elsewhere” says Sowri Rajan Bhattar looking back at his early days at the temple.

He recounts the first decade of his service at Thiru Kannapuram Divya Desam “As a teenager, I found that there was no oil to even light the lamp. I would light the lamp, but when the oil dried up, there would not be another packet to refill. Such was the state of the temple  50years ago." 

His appa had passed away in 1983 leaving Sowri Rajan Bhattar all on his own at the temple. 25years after he joined the temple service, by when he had had three children, his monthly salary had increased to Rs. 750!!! By this period, the once vibrant Divya Desam that was once home to 100s of Vaishnavite families had seen most of the original inhabitants leave the town seeking greener pastures in the city. This meant that the Thattu Kaasu that an archaka could have hoped for on a daily basis too dwindled. The temple struck a new low in the 1970s and 80s with minimal devotees visiting the temple and it became increasingly challenging for the archaka to manage the big utsavams. Unmindful of the financial challenges, he kept his service going for Kainkaryam to Sowri Raja Perumal surpassed everything else in life.

Sowri Rajan Bhattar is considered an agama expert and has been receiving calls from several popular non Divya Desam temples including Nanganallur and Panchavati Anjaneya Temples over the last couple of decades but right from his childhood when he had begun to watch his appa in Kainkaryam, he felt blessed to be part of Divya Desam Kainkaryam and rejected these lucrative offers “As seen in Thiru Mangai Azhvaar’s praise, I had seen the Lord as my own child, I have touched and bathed him over the last five decades and hence my mind has always been attached to this Lord” says  Sowri Rajan Bhattar on having no second thoughts of accepting financially lucrative offers in his lifetime.

As the Sthaneegam, his family also had the rights to recite Purana Paadams on specific occasions in the year. They also had special rights during certain festivals at the temple. However, with the entry of the HR & CE, the Sthaneegam rights has been taken away from Sowri Rajan Bhattar and for the last many years, he has been fighting an uphill battle to secure back the rights, that has clearly been recorded in an Olai Chuvadi 2 centuries ago.

Well past 70, he does not get even the three digit salary anymore and is solely dependent on the Thattu Kaasu of devotees. His second son Murali Bhattar has joined him in daily service at this Divya Desam and he too does not get even a rupee as salary from the HR &CE. But when it comes to conducting the utsavams, the HR&CE reaches out to Sowri Rajan Bhattar and his five decades experience at the temple to secure the devotee support for the temple. 

A recent indication of this was when the big bell of Thiru Kannapuram that is used on various pooja occasions was damaged, it was Sowri Rajan Bhattar who immediately secured a replacement bell of the same huge size through a devotee. But he remains grounded even in these big happy moments “I perform my kainkaryam with sincerity. Hence when there is a requirement for the Lord, the devotee comes on his own with his offering. This securing of the big bell for the Lord is one such example when the devotee of his own accord offered to do the replacement bell.”

The new big bell will be installed soon at the temple. There are many other such requirements at the temple such as organizing the Six Kaalam Thaligai every day for the Lord, Adyayana Utsavam Kainkaryam in Margazhi, organizing flower garland, Thirumanjanam and Thaligai during the 10 day Utsavams in Maasi and Vaikasi. While he performs Kainkaryam at the Divya Desam without a salary for his service, it is Sowri Rajan Bhattar who shoulders the responsibility for the conduct of the daily pooja and the utsavams and to ensuring that all is well at the temple at least from a Kainkaryam point of view. 

He says that the Lord has seen him through at the temple for half a century and has the fullest faith that Sowri Rajan Perumal will take care of him for the rest of his life in helping him perform Kainkaryam with sincerity and devotion at this five Azhvaars praised Divya Desam. In his daily life, he often remembers the praise of Kulasekara Azhvaar’s Perumal Thirumozhi and the verses on the Lord of Kannapuram where the strength of Lord Rama is extolled. Sowri Rajan Bhattar has gathered such strength in his mind to overcome all the challenges in his life and continues to perform archaka service at the temple with the same devotion that he began with over 50 years ago. 

Sowri Rajan Bhattar can be reached on 95971 14670/96005 33262