BJP National President J P Nadda will be on a two-day visit to poll bound Karnataka on February 20 and 21, and will take part in various activities and events, aimed at preparing and strengthening the party for Assembly elections likely by April or May. Nadda is also set to participate in a public representatives meeting at Sringeri.
BJP is considered to be strong in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts, however the Sringeri in Chikkamagaluru district, which Nadda is visiting, is currently represented by Congress.
A Power Centre
The Sringeri mutt has been a significant political and religious centre since at least the 14th century, According to Leela Prasad’s Poetics of Conduct. The colonial British authorities and its Nayak and Wodeyar dynasty appointees, like the Vijayanagara kings and Mysore Muslim rulers such as Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, saw the monastery as a strategically significant nexus for regional affairs.
The British authorities were interested in its operations, its collection of Hindu writings on Dharma, and its guidance because to its regional prominence.
In current times, the Sringeri Sharada Peeta is considered one of the most influential Shaiva mutts in the state. A 2018 report by Newslaundry says the Congress Gandhi family has had a deep-rooted relationship with the 1,300-year-old Sringeri mutt, for both religious and political reasons. Rahul’s grandparents, Indira and Rajiv, had visited Sringeri and met the Sharadha Peetha seer.
The report goes on to say that as per analysts, mutts can influence at least 30% of Hindu voters in Karnataka, a swing that all political parties hope for. But H Jayaram, a political scholar told the publication that Karnataka has informed voters in the south, the western coast, and cities who are unlikely to be swayed by mutts.
About the Sringeri Mutt
Sringeri Sharada Peetham is one of four mathas founded by Adi Shankara, as per Sringeri.net. Dwaraka in Gujarat, Govardhana in Odisha, and Jyotirmath in Uttarakhand are the other three. Adi Shankaracharya, a well-known philosopher and theologian, founded these mathas in the eighth century AD.
Sringeri Sharada Peetham is a prominent pilgrimage place for Hindu devotees who come from all over the world to visit this temple and seek blessings. It is located on the banks of the Tunga river in the Chikmagalur district of Karnataka.
How Mutts Influence Voters
Religious intellectuals in Hindu mutts believe that the religious difference centred on Vaishnava Pantha and Shaiva Pantha was the fundamental cause, as these two streams gradually divided on numerous aspects of life such as clothes, style of life, food, and even education and health care. Mutts from the Lingayat, Veerashaiva, Vokkaliga, Brahmin, and Goud Saraswat Brahmin communities swiftly organised into political groupings, said the Newslaundry report.
This movement also promotes the lower classes, Dalits, and other marginalised groups to establish their own mutts and temples. These religious institutions became into political powerhouses thanks to politicians who gave them legitimacy and exploited them to exert caste power. BS HD Yeddyurappa, Deve Gowda and his son HD Kumaraswamy, as well as Veerendra Patil and S Nijalingappa, share a common ancestry as prominent Karnataka politicians who thrived in, and effectively promoted, this political-religious environment, the report said.
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