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After 21 years, Hindu rituals performed at Baba Budangiri
Bengaluru Pooja and rituals as per Hindu traditions were conducted at the controversial Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah/Peetha on Thursday after a gap of 21 years
Bengaluru Pooja and rituals as per Hindu traditions were conducted at the controversial Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah/Peetha on Thursday after a gap of 21 years. The rituals were performed as part of the Datta Jayanti celebrations at the Baba Budangiri in Chikkamagaluru taluk.
Baba Budangiri peak has been a pilgrimage spot for both Hindus and Muslims. Often referred to as South India’s Ayodhya, Hindus consider the hilltop shrine to be the final resting place of Lord Dattatreya, while the Muslim community believes the dargah is one of the earliest centres of Sufism in south India.
The controversy is around the Peetha, which according to the court documents, was a major Muzrai temple under the Mysore Religious and Charitable Institutions Act, 1927, but was taken over by the state Wakf Board on April 6, 1973, before the Emergency was declared in the country.
According to temple officials, due to the controversy, the last time the rituals were held at the disputed site was in 2001. Since then, the rituals were only allowed outside the cave shrine.
The rituals on Thursday were attended by minister for urban development BA Basavaraj, BJP national general secretary CT Ravi, Chikkamagaluru MLA and members of the management committee.
“The government had given its consent to hold the rituals after verifying photos and videos from before 2001 showing the rituals being held on the shrine premises,” Hemanth Kumar, president of the management committee, told media.
Hundreds of devotees from Kadur, Sakaleshpur, Udupi and other parts of the state participated.
The Karnataka high court on Wednesday allowed Datta Jayanti celebrations for three days from December 6 at the Baba Budangiri hills. A division bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N Vishwajith Shetty allowed the religious rituals by the committee set up by the state government including pooja to the ‘Datta Paduke’.
Advocate Prabhuling Navadgi, arguing on behalf of the government, said that the state has already formed a managing committee that included Hindu and Muslim priests. Both the communities were allowed to worship at the shrine everyday and therefore celebrations of the three-day Datta Jayanti should be allowed.
The Karnataka government’s March 19, 2018 order appointing a Muslim ‘mujawar’ to perform religious rites at the shrine was challenged by the Dattatreya Devastana Samvardhana Samithi in the high court. In 2021, the HC had set aside the government order and directed the administration to make a fresh order.
Syed Ghouse Mohiuddin Shah Khadri, the hereditary administrator of the shrine, challenged the single-judge HC order before the division bench.
CT Ravi has said the second phase of the struggle to separate Bababudan dargah from the Datta Peetha will be taken up soon. Speaking to reporters in Chikkamagaluru on Wednesday, Ravi, said the long struggle had succeeded with the appointment of Hindu priests for the shrine. At present they had been appointed on a temporary basis. Later they would be appointed permanently.
“We have records to show that Bababudan Dargah and Datta Peetha are in different locations. With an eye on land associated with the peetha, two different structures were shown as one. We will fight this issue”, he said.
