Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh). Recently in Gollapalli village situated in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh, there were reports in some section of media as well as social media that temple entry was denied to the members of Scheduled Castes. Contrary to media reports, a factual investigation based on physical visit to the village and interview with the temple priestess, revealed a different scenario – a temporary closure of the temple doors was wrongly reported as denial of temple entry to members of Scheduled Castes.
On 20 August 2023, popular Telugu TV channel – TV9 telecast a news item stating that Dalits were denied entry into Polakshamma temple at Gollapalli village of Puttur Mandal in Tirupati District. Later, several major news sites like The Hindu, The News Minute, Times of India & The New Indian Express published similar news with catchy titles creating an impression that the incident had really happened in the said village.
Taking advantage of the above news reports, few Christian Pastors started targeting the Brahmin community and other so-called upper caste Hindus blaming them of showing discriminating towards the people of Scheduled Castes. This was uncalled for as Brahmins are not all connected with the day to day running of the temple.
In order to ascertain the ground-level facts, the team from Nijam Today Chanel visited the Gollapalli village which is an interior place situated at the Andhra Pradesh – Tamil Nadu border and falls under Tirupati District of AP.
Polakshamma temple is famous in Gollapalli and its surrounding villages where people of different communities offer Pongal (a food dish made up of rice) to the holy deity. Nijam Today team met the woman Temple Pujari (priestess) who has been maintaining the temple for more than 30 years and has been officiating as the priestess of the temple. She belongs to Jangam community, which is one of most backward castes in Andhra Pradesh.
Members of the Jangam community are well known for practising and preaching moral and religious values in Shaivism, Veerashaivism and Jangama dhyana section of Hindutva.
Koyaluri Eashwaramma, the woman-priest of the Polakshamma temple was engaged in Temple Jatra (yearly celebrations observing holy days) festivities which lasted for a week. It is noteworthy that villagers, including those from nearby areas, mostly from Scheduled Caste communities visit the temple to offer prayers and Pongal (a special dish made with rice to offer as Naivedyam) to the holy deity. Because of the strain of standing for extended hours and her advanced age, Eashwaramma was exhausted and decided to take a short break during the lunch hour and locked the temple doors as a safety measure before she went to take a small nap.
During this time, a group of devotees from the SC community arrived at the temple with their offerings and found the doors locked. A few individuals from the group went to the Pujari’s place where she was taking a rest and requested her to unlock the temple doors. Eashwaramma promptly responded to them, immediately returned to the temple, and carried out the rituals as usual without any impediments.
Unfortunately, a specific aspect of this incident was isolated and misinterpreted by certain factions. These groups, including certain elements inimical to social harmony, equal access to all communities and peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the temple, joined hands with a section of the media and put out reports with a malicious intention and portrayed temporary door closure as an instance of denying temple entry to members of SC community. As such, the news reports appearing in the media are quite contrary to actual sequence of events.
Temple priestess Eashwaramma in an interview given to the Nijam Today team that visited the village, told that she has been serving at the temple for over 30 years and has never discriminated against anyone. Moreover, she belongs to the Jangam community, which is under the Union Government’s consideration for its listing in the Scheduled Castes category. Responding to media reports of alleged caste discrimination in her Temple, Eashwaramma broke into tears saying that a section of the media is deliberately blaming her and the temple’s sanctity by spreading fake news. She also said that some of the village politics are to be condemned for misleading the public.
The interview with Eashwarammma has been uploaded in the Youtube Channel of Nijam Today.
The villagers including people from Scheduled castes also pointed out that this news was deliberately spread with malicious intent to unjustly accuse the Upper Caste members of the village as being discriminatory towards members of Scheduled Caste community. They emphasized that there is no discrimination in the village at any point in the past or present.
In essence, the temporary closure of the temple doors was a result of the Pujari’s need for a brief rest due to the physically demanding nature of her responsibilities during a period of continuous festivities. The incident’s portrayal as a denial of temple entry is inaccurate and fails to acknowledge the true context of the situation.