![\"Controversy](\"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/article20161102_17.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe popular hill shrine at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh is caught in a controversy over with what namam the idol of Lord Venkateswara should be decorated.<\/p>\n
It is reported that the chief Priest Ramana Deekshitulu has done the Puja by using U shape namam to Lord Balaji. The other priests argue that the namam should be in V shape.<\/p>\n
On the other hand the chief Priest Deekshitulu has taken his grand son into the sanctum sanctorium which is against the religious rules in the TTD. A show cause notice has already been issued for the chief Priest in this regard seeking his explanation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A tussle has broken out between the two warring Vaishnava sects of the temple priests on how the \u201cNamam\u201d (forehead mark or tilak) of Lord Venkateswara\u2019s should look like. There has been a long-standing rivalry between \u201cThenkalai\u201d and \u201cVadakalai\u201d sects of priests over matters of temple rituals and traditions.<\/p>\n
Earlier the row has touched a new low when the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) chief priest Ramana Deekshitulu\u2019s son and priest Arun was suspended for applying \u201cwrong shape of Namam\u201d on the idol. The action followed a complaint made by the Pedda Jeeyar Swamy, one of the hereditary chief of a Mutt located in Tirumala.<\/p>\n
The Mutt claimed that the priest had put the Thenkalai Namam instead of Vadakalai Namam.<\/p>\n
The \u201cVadakalai\u201d sect of priests prescribe a \u2018U\u2019 shaped Namam, while the \u201cThengalais\u201d root for a \u2018Y\u2019 shape one. Incidentally, both the sects belong to the Sri Vaishnava group and are also often referred as the Iyengar Brahmins.<\/p>\n
![\"Controversy](\"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ttd.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The rival sect of priests has threatened to move the court over the alleged \u201cintentional change\u201d in the \u201cNamam\u201d of the idol. According to the temple priests, the size and shape of the \u201cNamam\u201d are governed by the principles of \u201cVaikhanasa Aagamam.\u201d<\/p>\n
The change was noticed by Sri Pedda Jeeyar Swami who complained to the TTD authorities. The TTD, in turn, kept a tab on the performance of the priest and took the decision to exclude him from \u201cAbhishekam\u201d duties after they found him erring over the matter of applying \u201cNamam\u201d to the idol.<\/p>\n
An apparent change in the practice on what adorns the idol has resulted in one of the sects planning to approach the court. It is not the first time that the two groups have sparred over the matters of temple tradition.
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The popular hill shrine at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh is caught in a controversy over with what namam the idol of Lord Venkateswara should be decorated. It is reported that the chief Priest Ramana Deekshitulu has done the Puja by using U shape namam to Lord Balaji. The other priests argue that the namam should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3,2],"tags":[48,13046,13047,669,1678,706,33,8156,27,13049,13048,13045],"class_list":["post-30600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nri","category-politicalnews","category-top-stories","tag-andhra-pradesh","tag-balaji","tag-chief-priest-ramana-deekshitulu","tag-controversy","tag-lord-balaji","tag-lord-venkateswara","tag-tirumala","tag-tirumala-tirupati-devasthanam","tag-ttd","tag-ttd-chief-priest-ramana-deekshitulu","tag-u-shape-namam","tag-v-namam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ramam.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greattelangaana.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}