HC stays single judge’s order against worship of Lord Buddha’s sculpture as Thalaivetti Muniappan by Hindus

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the operation of an order passed by a single judge of the court in 2022 to not allow a sculpture having the traits of Lord Buddha to be worshipped by the Hindus as Thalaivetti Muniappan in Periyeri village of Salem district.

Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar granted the interim stay on being convinced with the arguments advanced by Special Government Pleader N.R.R. Arun Natarajan for the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department which had preferred the writ appeal.

The SGP contended that the single judge had failed to note that not just Lord Buddha but also Lord Shiva and many other deities had been depicted in crossed leg mediatation pose, known as padmasana or lotus position, and therefore, it could not be a reason to conclude the sculpture to be that of Lord Buddha.

Even otherwise, since the Hindus had been worshipping the sculpture as Thalaivetti Muniappan, by constructing a temple, for long and the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 insists on retaining the character of religious institutions as they existed on August 15, 1947, the temple should not be disturbed now, he said.

He pointed out that even the presiding deity of Pandi Muni temple in Madurai was in padmasana posture and therefore, it would not be proper to change the character of a religious institution all of a sudden especially when religious sentiments of a larger number of people were attached to it.

It was Buddha Trust, represented by its trustee R. Selvakumar, of Salem which had originally filed a writ petition in the High Court in 2011 seeking a direction to the archaeology department to inspect the sculpture being worshipped as Thalaivetti Muniappan and submit a report to the court.

Accordingly, the State archeaology department officials inspected the sculpture on July 28, 2021 and submitted a report stating that “the sculpture depicts several Mahalakshanas (great traits) of Lord Buddha.” The team of experts also submitted photographs of the sculpture for the perusal of the court.

After taking note of the report, the single judge had on July 19, 2022 refused to allow the HR&CE department to continue to maintain the sculpture as that of Thalaivetti Muniappan. “The mistaken identity cannot be allowed to continue after coming to a conclusion that the sculpture is that of Buddha,” the judge had said.

He directed the State archaelogy department to take control of the sculpture and maintain it as that of Lord Buddha. “The general public can also be permitted to visit this place and it shall be ensured that no pujas or other ceremonies are allowed to be performed for the sculpture of Buddha,” the judge had ordered.