[Kapaleeswarar Temple Peacock Idol] Madras High Court directs Agamic committee to settle flower-or-snake debate

The Madras High Court on Friday directed the committee constituted for identifying Agamic temples in the State to also find out whether the peacock idol at the Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore, Chennai must be carrying a flower or a snake in its beak, the Hindu reported.

The bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala passed the order while disposing of a plea filed by Rangarajan Narasimhan pertaining to the matter of the disappearance of a statue of a peacock from the Kapaleeswarar Temple.

Narasimhan had alleged that the original peacock carrying a flower on its beak had been shifted out of the Kapaleeswarar temple during its consecration in 2004 and was replaced with an identical idol of the bird holding a snake on its beak. He had also lodged a police complaint regarding the same. 

When Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram informed the court that the investigation in the criminal case had been completed and a chargesheet had been filed, the high court decided to take a call only with respect to the need or otherwise of changing the existing idol carrying a snake in its beak.

Court ordered that the existing peacock idol carrying a snake must be replaced if, after hearing all the concerned parties, the committee comes to a conclusion that there should be a flower and not a snake in its beak.

Recently, the high court had ordered constitution of a committee headed by retired judge M. Chockalingam to identify the temples constructed as per different Agama Sastras in the State so that the priests for those temples could be appointed accordingly.

The direction was issued during the hearing in batch of writ petitions filed by the All India Adi Saiva Sivachariyargal Seva Sangam and others challenging various statutory rules pertaining to the appointment of temple priests.

Case Title: Rangarajan Narasimhan v. The Board of Trustees And 6 Others