Srirangam Harish Bhattar

The 1960s-80s had been a challenging phase not just for priests in remote temples (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/temples-lockdown-1960s-70s.html) but also for those at the Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam, now one of the richest temples in Tamil Nadu. This section has featured many stories on the trend of the next gen priests moving away from hereditary service to jobs in the corporate world (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/11/bhattars-gurukals-move-away-from-temples.html). It was no different with those at the Srirangam temple as well. In March this year, this section had featured a story on Aravindan Bhattar who continues to work in the IT sector with a highly lucrative pay package (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2024/03/srirangam-aravinda-bhattar-it-director.html). This story is about a priest who was the first among the next gen at the Ranganathaswamy temple to give up the corporate job and get back into hereditary service. That decision is paying off well with the temple now in a glorious phase on the back of a devotional wave that has been hitting the TN temples over the last decade or so.

Srivathsan Bhattar, popularly known as Harish Bhattar, performed creditably in academics. As seen in many stories in this section, sons of priests have tended to get into patshala education to learn the agamas but with close to 90% in class X, he was encouraged to pursue academics and moved to a hostel in Thiruchengode taking up the first group in Plus 2 with the family members and well-wishers feeling he had bright academic future. Over a 1000 marks in Class XII Boards led him to an Engineering college and he was away for four years at Thiruvannamalai. With an early interest in finance, he then did a MBA from a college in Coimbatore. All these indicated a move into the corporate world and a life away from temples.

His appa, Murali Bhattar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/01/murali-bhattar-srirangam-temple-chief.html), had been in a Government job at BHEL for several decades and in line with the then trend, was keen for his son to have a secure corporate job. Harish Bhattar told this writer on a day when Namperumal made his way to Amma Mandapam on the Northern Banks of Cauvery for the Aadi Perukku utsavam that most of his seniors and relatives were for him to work in the corporate set up “The future for priests had been uncertain. There had been talks in the air of taking away the Thattu Kaasu from priests. The prospects for those with Hereditary Service in temples did not seem too bright and ‘anyone’ could become a priest was becoming the order of the day. Given all these, everyone around suggested to a life away from temple service. Even the previous generation had been working in educational institutions, banks and in govt service for financial security as the scenario had been bleak in that period.”

He worked for a brief period in an engineering firm in Trichy before his Masters in Finance led him into the Banking Sector. He joined a private bank where he was involved in selling Mutual Fund and Insurance Products among other services. Increasing the customer base led him to move up quickly to the post of Dy. Manager. 

His high knowledge of the financial services sector led him to make strategic personal investments in Mutual Funds and he had amassed a fair degree of 'profitable investments' that, he was confident, would take care of his future, financially. His appa too was facing health challenges in the middle of the last decade and a combination of multiple factors led him to quit the banking job soon after his marriage “My appa told me that he did not have the confidence during his time to quit the Government job and get back full time into temple service and asked if I had the confidence to let go of a financially lucrative job where the future was bright” Harish Bhattar told this writer looking back at the phase when he took the decision to quit.”

He donned the role of Raksha Bandana Bhattar even before he had turned 30 by when he had already quit the Bank job.

Of course, with the huge crowd thronging the Srirangam temple, it is no easy task for any priest to manage the Sannidhi as Harish Bhattar found out at the Ranganayaki Thayar Sannidhi on the eve of the Aadi Perukku utsavam. A visit of a former Chief Minister to the Sannidhi led to mayhem and the huge crowd became restless on Aadi Velli and Harish Bhattar was the one who had to face the fury of the angry crowd.

                               

This is not a one-off episode. He has stood firm over the way he performs the Thirumanjanam and other pooja kramas. Far too detailed presentation of the poojas consumed lot of time something this writer has seen has not always gone well with others at the temple at a time when patience is at a premium. When the return of Namperumal from a procession overshot the scheduled time resulting in delay in the Thirumanjanam, Harish Bhattar went ahead with his usual complete performance that further delayed the events of the next morning leading to the cancellation of vahana processions on a few occasions during the Brahmotsavams in recent years. This has led to him getting memos (a common feature these days in HR & CE temples!!!) from the HR & CE. But he is unmindful of these as he believes in performing his service in the way it should be “My Thatha has written and recorded in such depth every activity for a priest at this temple and that is the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) I follow. I gained the entire theoretical knowledge of daily as well as utsava pooja kramas from my thatha and the practical experience watching my appa perform from an early age even as a school boy. My process has been to follow those with unwavering faith.”

Activists have been hitting out at him on many of the pooja aspects at the temple. Harish Bhattar is unfazed at such criticisms “If I have done a wrong as an archaka, I should correct myself and not repeat it again and should thank those who point out the wrongs. If I have not done any wrong, I need not be worried about any criticism.”

That is a model he has followed in recent years though in the initial phase he did find it challenging at the non stop criticisms that he had to encounter.

Even as a young teenager, Harish Bhattar had begun supporting his appa in temple Kainkaryam. He says exposure to Kainkaryam at an early age had given him the much needed experience. Also, since he had been at the temple from his time as a student at the Govt Boys School, all  the kainkaryaparas have been known to him for a couple of decades and that too helped when he took charge full time as an archaka “Teenage phase is an age when you are able to learn fast and are also not worried about the ‘shouting’ from others. My performing Thiru Aradhanam at Chakkarathazhvaar Sannidhi and Singar Koil as a teenager holds me in good stead today as it gave me a lot of experience and helped me build a long standing relationship with all the Kainkarayaras at the temple.”

For close to two decades, he has also been taking care of cows. Starting with just one in 2006, it grew manifold to 30 at its peak but when he decided to take to full time archaka service he gave away a majority of them to another Go Shala leaving him with just four. But this has once again grown now to 16. “I did not want to create a Trust and seek donations for this. I maintain it myself. The Go-Samrakshanam activity gives a lot of satisfaction and I spend a lot of time with the cows, outside of my temple service” says Harish Bhattar on his devotional love with cows.

In the second half of the previous century, a generation of priests had moved out of temple service but with the return, in a big way, of the devotional wave in TN temples, the money is back in temples for archakas and that is driving many of them, especially in large temples, back into temple service. It is no more an uncommon sight to find a priest in a TN temple ride the high profile bullet and new gen cars on the streets of historical temple towns. 

As a front runner, Harish Bhattar has served as a successful role model for those priests in Srirangam who had taken to the corporate world over the last couple of decades. Another priest has followed in his footsteps quitting an IT job and taking up the hereditary service while one other priest who has joined a start up IT firm at a huge pay package told this writer that he too will be quitting the corporate job and getting back to full time archaka service that his Thatha had performed in the century gone by. And that is good news for the Ranganathaswamy temple.