Nadar’s Temple Entry

By Act XX of 1863, the Madras Government withdrew completely from the administration of the Hindu temples and handed over its rights to Kings or Zamindars if they could prove a hereditary interest in a temple; for maths, a head priest was given virtual private property rights in the entire endowment and where no intermediaries were available, elected committees were formed to carry on the administration.

Fallowing Act XX, the framework of a district arena of politics was created around the temples of Tanjore. Local magnates battled with each other for the resources of the temples and the right to be seen in command of them. This was certainly the beginning of ‘modern’ politics in the district.

When the regulations for the election of members of temple committees came into force, the dominant temple politicians of Tanjore district was Rao Bahadur S. A. Saminatha Iyer (a mirasidar, lawyer and moneylender) and Rao Bahadur T.S. Sivaswami Odayar (landlord). [1]

The rising power of the Porayar Nadar estate, led it to claim a seat on the Kumbakonam temple committee (the committee administered temples of Kumbakonam, Mayavaram and Shiyali [2]). Porayar Nadar estate’s V. Thavsumuthu Nadar’s brother V. Ponnuswami Nadar decided to contest for the committee.

S.A. Saminatha lyer, who was the committee chairman and wanted the place for an ally, ran a campaign which urged the electorate to vote against the Nadars in the interests of preserving caste purity. [3]

The campaign was extremely bitter and violent. [4]

It is noteworthy that, Nadar estate ware moneylenders as well, in Kumbakonam, the clients of the Poraiyar Nadars included Brahman mirasidars, local traders and property owners, policemen, revenue officials and, it was rumoured, even the Tanjore district Collector. [5]

The Nadar estate was supported, of course, not only by his tenants, agents and clients but also by the police and revenue departments, by the Brahman professors at Kumbakonam, who looked to his patronage, and by some of the leading aristocrats of the district, including the V. Appaswami Vandayar, Zamindar of Pundi who could supply him with their dependents. [6]

Meanwhile, Thiruvadathorai Pandarasanidhi (it was the largest Saivite math with large endowments in the districts of Tinnevelly (25,000 acres), Madura (10,000 acres) and Tanjore (3,000 acres) as well as small possessions in others) supported the S. A. Saminatha lyer and to encounter it, the Poraiyar Nadar Estate financed the attempt of his subordinate math at Tirupanandal to break away from him. [7]

The Nadar estate was supported, of course, not only by his tenants, agents and clients but also by the police and revenue departments, by the Brahman professors at Kumbakonam, who looked to his patronage, and by some of the leading aristocrats of the district, including the V. Appaswami Vandayar, Zamindar of Pundi who could supply him with their dependents. [6]

The Nadar estate had contacts already inside the temple committee, who put some of its resources at his disposal, and other voters who were not tied to him and his friends by pre-existing links of patronage and welfare were bought for silver rupees at the polling booth. A whole cross-section of society worked together in his interest, held together by a variety of strands which led to him personally.

In spite of S. A. Saminatha lyer’s campaign and the fact that the entire electorate was composed of caste Hindus, the Porayar Nadar estate won by an overwhelming majority. [8]

Nadar estate’s V. Ponnusami Nadar (Vellaiya Nadar’s 2^nd son) was appointed as a member of the Devastanam Committee controlling the temple at Kumbakonam in 1889, any controversy there might have been about his caste died down. [9]

Ponnusami Nadar was the first from the Nadar community in to get into a temple committee. As a committee member, his authority was accepted as the equal of any other.

At Kumbakonam, in the heartland of the Tamil Brahman, the committee was dominated and run mostly by members of the other castes., i.e. T. Ponnuswami Nadar, V. Appaswami Vandayar and T. S. Sivaswami Odayar and very few Brahmans could get onto it. [10]

This spectacle of a Nadar on the temple committee in orthodox Thanjavur created a stir in the 1890s.

But within the next thirty years, it had become the custom that member of Porayar Nadar estate, was allowed to sit on the Temple Committee as a mark their (temple’s) status. [11]

Earlier in Thavsumuthu Nadar’s period, Porayar Nadar estate has met the costs of various ceremonies and festival expenses and had established various Kattalais (endowment for certain specific religious services in a temple) on the temples by donating lands and depositing money with the temples. The temples include Nataraja temple in Chidambaram*, Thiruchendur Murugan temple, Kumbeswarar temple in Kumbakonam, Palzhi Murugar temple and Abirami temple in Thirukkadaiyur.

*During the Kumudi case, the Nadars of Sivakasi, called upon the priest from Chidambaram temple to court as a witness and testified the Poraiyar Nadar estate’s privileges in the temple as the proof that the Nadar community is not of low station and requested the Judge to allow them (Sivakasi Nadars) also to the Kumdi temple. [12]

Since the period of Vellaiya Nadar, the family of Nadar estate is the hereditary trustee of 5 temples in Porayar: 1) Shivan temple 2) Vishnu temple 3) Kumaran temple 4) Vinayakar temple 5) Ayyanar temple. Nadar estate family has donated more than 350 acres of agricultural land for these temples.

Zamindar Thavsumuth Nadar built a temple for Goddess Parvati in Poraiyar in the 1880s and his brother Ponnuswamy Nadar built a temple for Lord Vinayakar in Kumbakonam.