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Tirupati trust, Karnataka religious body lock horns over birthplace of Hanuman
Hyderabad: Which is the birthplace of Lord Hanuman? Last month, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the independent trust that administers Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, claimed that the Tirumala hills was where the Hindu god was born
Hyderabad: Which is the birthplace of Lord Hanuman? Last month, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the independent trust that administers Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, claimed that the Tirumala hills was where the Hindu god was born. Now, Sri Hanumad Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust of Kishkindha in Karnataka has strongly contested this claim, calling it “daiva droham” (betrayal of god), and asserted that the actual birthplace of Lord Hanuman is located in Pampa-kshetra (Hampi) on the banks of the Tungabhadra River.
TTD isn’t willing to withdraw its claim yet and has said that it has all the evidence to prove that Anjanadri, one of the seven hills of Tirumala, is the birthplace of the god, but if the Karnataka trust has any evidence to the contrary, it should share it by May 20.
TTD made its claim in a booklet it released on April 13, coinciding with the Ugadi festival (Telugu New Year). It was based on a report submitted by an eight-member expert committee formed in December 2020 and headed by Professor Sannidhanam Sudarshana Sharma, vice-chancellor of Sri Venkateshwara Vedic University. The panel met several times and gathered evidence from scriptures before submitting its report to TTD’s executive officer, K S Jawahar Reddy.
In the first week of May, the Karnataka trust sent a six-page, strongly worded letter authored by Govindananda Saraswati Swamy, the founding trustee, to TTD. Copies of it were also marked to the governors and chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. Swamy dismissed the TTD report as misleading and claimed that his trust had all the evidence to prove that Lord Hanuman was born at Kishkindha hills at Pampa-kshetra in Koppal district. He quoted from the Valmiki Ramayana and other scriptures to buttress his claim.
“We are ready for any debate on the subject. We give seven days’ time to TTD to reply to this letter. Otherwise, we will declare TTD and its expert team offenders. We won’t file any police complaint against TTD as our aim is to make them realise the factual position,” Swamy wrote.
TTD picked up the gauntlet and announced that it was ready for a debate. On May 7, V Muralidhar Sharma, project officer of National Sanskrit University under TTD, answered the Karnataka trust’s letter and refuted the charges levelled against TTD. He said the committee had done extensive research for four months and gathered mythological, literary, archaeological, and geographical evidence to conclude that Tirumala, also mentioned as Anjanadri in ancient scriptures, was the birthplace of Lord Hanuman. “We have submitted all the evidence that we gathered to the Karnataka trust and asked it to submit objections, if any, to TTD before May 20. We are awaiting their reply,” Sharma said.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former TTD trust board member G Bhanuprakash Reddy said the controversy over Lord Hanuman’s birthplace was totally unwarranted. “TTD has come out with certain proof. If the Karnataka trust has any other evidence to counter TTD’s claims, it should disclose it instead of making wild allegations,” Reddy said.
