There are 40 priests who claim to be staying in the city for close to 50 years.The simmering discontent between local Brahmin priests and priests deemed to be outsiders took an aggressive turn in the temple town of Trimbakeshwar with 17 priests being booked by police for criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt.
Local priests, who claim to a millennium-old association with the holy city, are said to be opposed to the entry of new priests into the city. As per the Trimbakeshwar Purohit Sangh, there are 50 to 60 Brahmin families in Trimbakeshwar who have a lineage and association with Trimbakeshwar for more than a millennium. The 580 priests who undertake puja in Trimbakeshwar hail from these families and are card-carrying members of the Purohit Sangh.
Lakhs of devotees from across the world have historically been coming to Trimbakeshwar for carrying out pujas for the souls of their ancestors. This massive flow of tourists has also attracted Brahmin priests from other parts of the state.
However, there has been a constant conflict between local and outsider priests over whether the latter have the right to conduct rituals in the temple town. Holding pujas at these pilgrim centres is known to be a lucrative profession. Devotees shell out thousands of rupees to conduct such rituals in Trimbakeshwar.
There are 40 priests who claim to be staying in the city for close to 50 years. Many of them allege they are not allowed by the local purohits to practice their trade nor are given official identity cards.
On Friday, three priests Shekhar Kulkarni, Prashant Sawai and Shekhar Sarvagyawho, who are said to have their origins from outside Trimbakeshwar, were conducting the Narayan Nagbali rituals for pilgrims who had approached them. These rituals are conducted for dead ancestral souls.
As per a complaint filed by the three at the Trimbakeshwar police station, a mob of 50 to 60 local priests assaulted them and stopped the rituals. The three in their complaint have claimed they were beaten up by the mob. The Trimbakeshwar police has booked 17 people on charges of unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation.
While there have been verbal tiffs between the two groups earlier, this is the first time that the conflict has taken a violent turn.
During the Kumbh Mela in 2015, local priests under the aegis of the Trimbakeshwar Purohit Sangh had put up signposts across the city asking pilgrims to hire only those pujaris who have been identified and vetted by the Trimbakeshwar Purohit Sangh for conducting rituals in the city. “Does the Guruji you have approached for undertaking puja carry this symbol carrying letter of authority,” ask colourful hoardings which have cropped up across Trimbakeshwar.
Local priests have claimed these signs had been put up to ensure that pilgrims are not fleeced by the newer lot of priests who have entered the town to make money.
