[Advaita-l] Temples across India

[Shrisha Rao]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 3:46 AM, S Jayanarayanan <sjayana at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Is the information below concerning priests in the various temples of India factually/historically
> accurate (especially the second paragraph), or is it fanciful imagination? The claim is that Sankara
> ordered Northerners to be priests at certain South-Indian temples, and vice-versa. I've never heard
> that the Pujaris in the famous Rameswaram temple were North-Indian!
>
> http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/raavaljis-of-badari.htm
>
> "The temple Poojaaris (temple priests) of Badari are Namboothiris from northern Kerala, a tradition started
> and ordained by Sree Sankaracharya himself. These priests, called Raavals, are selected from the members

I don't know if all the claims about cross-linkages are true, or what
basis exists to associate Sri Sankara
with the same, but there certainly are such instances.  It may be
recalled that there was some uproar
last year because the Nepali government threatened to eject the
hereditary South Indian priests from the
Pashupatinath temple in that country.

Regards,

Shrisha Rao