The great ‘Prasadam’ debate of our generation

A famed holy sweet in an unsavoury row in India

On the 19th of September 2024, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu dropped a bombshell by revealing that the acclaimed Tirupati Laddu, was deliberately adulterated by beef tallow and fish oil in its ingredients. A day later, a report from a laboratory in Gujarat confirmed these allegations, sparking an outrage among the Hindu communities, and devotees. Beef is taboo for Hindus as is Pork for Muslims. This also leads to a “blame game” between the ruling party, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and the opposition (and previously in power) YSR. Religious fervour invariably ignites debates about the religious identities of opposing political rivals. Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, the previous chief minister, despite his Hindu name and caste identity, is reputed to be a die-hard Christian in his belief. Many of his family members are involved in proselytization activities. Predictably, the needle of suspicion, was on him, for tacit connivance, for desecrating, the divine food offered to the Lord.

‘Naivedhyam’, and ‘Prasadam’ are exclusive unique concepts of the Hindu belief system. Several thousands of years believe that the Gods and Goddesses partake in the food items offered to them, and this is called ‘Naivedhyam’, thereafter the food is called ‘Prasadam’ and distributed for consumption to the devotees. The uniqueness of this belief system is that each and every temple in India has its own unique delicacy, offered to the presiding deity. There are unique ‘Payasams or Kheer’, rice offerings, and innumerable other sweet dish preparations. In Opilliappan Kovil, located in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur District, the food offerings are all prepared without any salt, hence the unique name of the deity. The first batch of proselytizers who landed in India, were wonderstruck by the concept of Gods relishing dishes prepared by humans. Many even questioned as to how our ‘Murtis’ in temples could eat? But, with the passage of time, even the foreign gods have started consuming foods offered by their devotees. Interestingly, foreign gods offer Hindu vegetarian delicacies, and they are even marketed as ‘Prasadam’!

Tirupati Laddu, also known as Sri Vari Laddu is the Laddu sweet offered as Naivedhyam to Lord Venkateshwara at Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple, Tirupati, Tirupati District, in Andhra Pradesh. The Laddu is given as Prasadam to devotees after they complete the Darshan in the temple. The Laddu is prepared within the temple kitchen known as ‘Potu‘. Tirupati Laddu received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag which entitles only Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which controls the temple and can make and sell it.

Similar iconic Naivedhyams are prepared in different Temples like the famous Ambalapuzha Palpayasam of Sri Krishna Temple, located in Ambalapuzha in Kerala, ‘Aravana payasam’ of Sabarimala, ‘Panchamrutam’ of Palani Temple in Tamil Nadu. 108 food items are offered as Naivedhyam to ‘Sri Panchamukha Hanuman’ at Sri Panchamukha Anjaneyar Siddhar Peetam at Tharamani, near Chennai. There are special occasions when some special eatables are offered to Gods. For example, “Thekua” which is made from wheat flour, ghee, and sugar, is offered to Sun God and “Chhathi Maiya” Goddess on the occasion of the festival of “Chhath”. Similarly, on the eighth day of “Navaratri” on ‘Ashtami’ during Dussehra. The homemade “Thekua”, “Purukiya” “Gujhiya”, “Pua” and “Kheer” are offered to the Goddess as “Naivedhyam”.

The misconceived interpretation of ‘Secularism’ in India by politicians, ironically by Hindus themselves, has ensured total liberty for foreign religions and tight control over only Hindu temples. Despite over seventy years of Independence, the iron grip of the various State governments over Hindu temples has not slackened but only worsened. Neither the Indian judiciary nor the special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief of the UN Human Rights Council, which identifies existing and emerging obstacles to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief, takes any cognizance whatsoever on the plight of over 1000 million Hindus. In addition, there is the annual Report to the U.S. Congress on International Religious Freedom which describes the status of religious freedom in every country. The report covers government policies violating the religious beliefs and practices of groups, religious denominations, and individuals. This institution has been hyper-sensitive to even the slightest resistance offered by Hindus against the vile machinations of foreign missionary gangs, operating in India, but totally unperturbed about the illegal government control over Hindu temples.

The apathy of the Indian judiciary and international bodies has emboldened various State governments to extend their tentacles, deep into temple administration, religious practices, the conduct of festivals, the appointment of priests and temple staff, fixing of tariffs for various temple offerings, and cost of Prasadams, fixing of discriminatory tariff for electricity consumption, water consumption, fixing of salaries for priests and staff, compulsory imposition of local language and neglect of Sanskrit, auctioning of temple offerings by devotees, and most important, laying hands on the enormous Hundi money collections. For this purpose, riff-raff political supporters are selected to function as chiefs of Devasthanams or Devasoms, members of the governing body, and executive officers. Misappropriation of funds, pilferage of gold and silver articles, and rampant corruption in maintenance are common everyday complaints, against the authorities.

In addition, the takeover of temples by the state governments is often directed against the temples of only certain communities. For example, in Tamil Nadu, the Brahmin community temples, are targeted for takeover. In Kerala, it is directed against the temples of the Namboodiri and Nair communities. The takeover of the temples itself is a mafia-style operation, happening during pre-dawn hours, supported by scores of goonda party followers, officials pouncing on the various registers and seizing them, Hundis being sealed, and gold and silver ornaments, vessels being impounded with typical bureaucratic arrogance, all under the watchful eyes of the amassed and armed police force. This can never happen to any foreign religious worship place, because the government knows that international condemnation and sanctions would come quickly and effectively. What sort of religious freedom and Constitutional guarantees are we falsely boasting of, when the belief system of over 1000 million Hindus are being brazenly trampled upon, and the judiciary has no time to hear their plight, but even a terrorist can get 24×7 access because his fundamental right of freedom is being threatened?

Be that as it may, why did the employees of TTD not raise an alarm? The kitchen where Tirupati Laddus are prepared has been referred to since the olden days as Laddu pōṭu. It lies inside the Sampangi Pradakshinam of the temple. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams prepares an average of 2.8 lakh Laddus a day. Around 620 cooks work in the Laddu Potu. It is simply impossible to believe that none of them suspected any adulteration.

In 2023, the Kerala High Court directed the Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) not to sell ‘Aravana Prasadam‘ in Sabarimala as the cardamom used in the preparation contained pesticides beyond the minimum permissible limit (MRL). The presence of around 14 pesticides in the chemical analysis of the cardamom procured by the Board from a Kollam-based supplier, was detected. The Bench held that the condiment had to meet the standards when the contract was to supply 15,000 kg of cardamom in terms of regulations under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. As a result, around 6.65 lakh Aravana cans were destroyed. Another controversy related to the ‘Halal’ stamp affixed on the Jaggery supplied. This also had to be agitated before the Kerala High Court.

Recently, news became viral that the Kerala Devasom Board has given the contract of making the ‘Aravana Payasam’ to a Muslim person and that the Prasad is available under the Arabic name ‘Al-Zahaa’ and has ‘Halal’ mentioned on it. Heavy criticism followed from all over the country.

All these controversies are regularly cropping up due to heavy corruption and deliberate mismanagement by the government-controlled Devasthanams or Devasoms. The only solution is to liberate all Hindu temples from the illegal control of politicians and hand them over to the devotees to run them as per religious norms. If autonomy can be granted to universities, schools, colleges, airlines, and multinational companies, why not for Hindu temples?

At the time of writing this article, the Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu announced on September 22nd the formation of an SIT to investigate the Tirupati Prasadam controversy. Let us hope the guilty will be punished.

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1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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