The Sivagiri Sree Naraynana Trust president Swami Sachidananda’s recent appeal to allow legendary playback singer and Carnatic music exponent KJ Yesudas to enter Sree Krishna temple in Guruvayur has triggered a fresh debate in Kerala.
The controversy has erupted as the singer, who is a Roman Catholic, marked six decades of his singing career on Sunday.
The temple administration’s board president KB Mohandas said he favoured the move, but the final decision will have to come from the “tantri” or the supreme priest of the temple, who has so far remained silent on the issue.
“In most temples, his devotional songs wake up the deity, but it is sad that he was not allowed to enter the Guruvayur temple. We have to undo this long- pending injustice and allow him to pay obeisance to his favourite deity,” said Swami Sachidananda last week.
The singer, who resides in the US, was not available for a comment on the controversy.
Many writers, intellectuals and religious bodies have welcomed the suggestion of the Sivagiri mutt head and appealed to “tantri” Chonas Dineshan Namboodiri to take a favourable decision. The latter has yet to respond.
“It is long overdue and he’s more qualified than any of us to have a ‘darshan’,” said poet and filmmaker Sreekumaran Thampi.
“If a devotee believes in a particular deity, there should not be any barrier between him and the deity,” said famous Malayalam writer T Padmanabhan. Many Hindu entities such as Viswa Hindu Parishad, Bharatiya Vichar Kendra and Kerala Brahmana Sabha also favour his entry.
Yesudas was a regular at the Sabarimala and Kollur Mookambika temples, and has sung some of the most popular devotional songs in his career.
It is part of the folklore in southern India that when his mentor Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar took him to Guruvayur temple in 1950s, the young singer was not allowed to enter the temple at that time because he was a Christian.
“It is possible for even insects to enter the temple, but not me. It is sad,” the singer had once said about the issue.
In 2017, Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple in the state capital allowed him to conduct a “kacheri” or a devotional music concert.
