Pandalam palace: May intervene if govt doesn’t

Thiruvananthapuram: The relationship of the Pandalam palace with Sabarimala temple does not change every five years and no one in the palace is interested in the temple’s wealth, said Sasikumara Varma, a representative of royal family.
Speaking to reporters at Pandalam, Varma rejected the state government’s contention that the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) was the custodian of the temple. “If the government is not willing to do things to protect the interests of the believers, then the royal family will have to intervene. Each devotee has the right to question when customs are broken,” he said.

The palace will express its opinion on matters related to the temple because we have been involved in its administration for decades. “A discussion on who is the custodian of the temple is not good. Palace has been forced into making a statement on this now,” he said.

Replying to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statement on Tuesday that as per a 1949 covenant the temple’s ownership was handed over to the TDB after the royal family had serious financial crisis, Varma said that only administrative powers were forfeited. “They can’t make any changes in the rituals or pujas. When the present rituals and customs were at stake, the palace authorities had to remind people about the covenant,” he said.

Varma reiterated that the tanthri is the last word at Sabarimala when it comes to rituals and pujas. The representatives of royal family said they were deeply pained by the contemptuous remarks by Vijayan about the family.

“We see an attempt to divide the society on caste lines. It won’t work. The rights of the Mala Araya tribe in the temple were taken away after TDB entered the scene. It was tribal people who were first caned by the police when the Nilackal issue had reached a flash point,” said Varma.