A Temple was built about 400 years ago in the midst of a village by the most respected Brahmin clan in the village. It was a Temple dedicated to Mahadev Shambhu. A learned Brahmin priest was appointed to do the daily Puja twice a day. He was assisted by another Brahmin priest to cook the Naivedya for the Deity and to keep the place clean and do some small chores. The main priest was given a place to stay and was allowed to keep for himself any Daan or Dakshina that he received from the devotees. Only the people of the clan were allowed to enter the Garb-gudi (sanctum sanctorum) and that too only after following some rules of ‘shoucha’(cleanliness) and food restrictions. The clan chief donated vast tracts of land to the Temple so that the Temple could have its own income/grains for the worship of the Deity and the small Goushala (shelter for a couple of milch cows). This went on for many years.

The other people in the village could hear the bells of the Temple, the constant chant of the Rudra and other shlokas, see the smoke from the Yagnashala on auspicious days and they felt that they too should become devotees of Mahadev Shambhu. It is not that they did not have other Temples in the village or that they did not pray to Mahadev in their homes before – it was just that they felt drawn to this Temple and felt the aura of this Temple was greater than of any other Temple in the village. The aura was probably because of the strict rules followed by the devotees and the Priests over years and years, and also because of the Pujas and Homas done there continuously. The villagers approached the Brahmin clan chief to seek permission to enter the Temple and pray there.

After much deliberation with his family members, the clan chief gave permission to the villagers to consider this Temple and its Deity as their Gram-Devata (village God). But before giving permission, certain rules were to be followed :

• All communities which wanted to pray there had to have a role in the worship too. For example the Madiwal community had to wash the clothes of the Deity, the Bhandaris had to play the musical instruments every day during Puja, the Gowdas had to bring the required leaves and flowers for the Puja and Bali and so on. Most of these duties lasted for about half-an-hour everyday.
• They could not enter the Garb-gudi. They could only take Darshan from outside.
• They would give small offerings to the Deity as and when they wanted to offer special prayers to the Deity. These offerings usually were only Coconuts and/or Bananas and some flowers.
• There was no money to be paid to visit the Temple or offer prayers and if any special prayers were to be offered to the Deity, they could give Daan/Dakshina to the Priests as per their capacity. (Most of the time, it used to be some vegetables from their plot of land.)

As time passed and the population of the village increased, more and more people offered prayers in the Temple. By and large, the people in the village were poor and even the members in the Brahmin clan were becoming poor because of various factors such as division of land and difference in education and job profiles. When the Britishers came to rule this land, the people became even poorer because of various new taxes to be paid and other reasons such as famines and lack of traditional jobs and incomes. There came a time when the villagers who did not belong to the Brahmin clan reached out to the then Chief and requested for some help for their communities because many of them were impoverished now. The traditional structure was falling and jobs and incomes were really scarce. They had no one to turn to other than Mahadev Shambhu and the Brahmin clan.

As is written down in our scriptures, the clan Chief also believed completely in “Sarve Janaha Sukhino Bhavantu” and he believed that even though everyone was facing a survival challenge, it was important to help one another during tough times and that Mahadev would help them overcome all the challenges. After a meeting with all the clan elders it was decided that in return for all the Seva that every community was doing to Mahadev, certain portion of the land owned by the Temple would be given to the various communities as a whole. They could not own the land, but could use the produce of the lands to feed themselves and/or to barter or sell the excess produce for their own purpose as they saw fit. Also, the Naivedya given to the Deity would be given to the various communities as Prasad, so that they would get atleast one meal a day for sure. Care was taken to prepare enough rice as Naivedya to feed atleast 10-15 families every single day. This portion of the Naivedya would never be taken by the members of the Clan or the Priests doing Puja in the Temple. Everyone was happy.

This went on for many years and everyone did their part in Seva to the Deity. The first main change happened after Independence from the British rule. In 1974, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka, Devaraj Urs, brought about the “Land to the Tiller” act. Thanks to this piece of legislation, all the land owned by Mahadev Shambhu and His Temple went to the respective communities tilling that piece of land. After this it was no longer felt by the people of the respective communities to be obliged to the Deity of the Temple or to the Brahmin clan which earlier owned the land. Now unexpectedly and suddenly, the land and its produce belonged to the other communities and most of the younger generation felt that ‘justice’ was served and that they no longer had to call the people of the Brahmin community ‘Wodeya’ (Chief). They were owners of the land; they were the ‘Wodeya’ themselves. But they were still grateful to the Deity and they continued to do their duties at the Temple without expecting any salary. For the first time youngsters in the Brahmin clan started wondering as to what their fault was that they were still poor, had lesser land to their name but still had to do the complete rituals every single day. They were getting disillusioned. On one hand they were called ‘oppressors’ and were shamed for their traditions and rituals and on the other they were scolded at home if they did not do their rituals.

The second change happened in the ‘80s when more and more people from the village started getting higher education, good jobs and migrated from the village to the Cities within India or even started going abroad. Initially this happened with the Brahmins because they were very studious, but soon even the other communities caught on. The result of Brahmins leaving the village was that now there were very few people in the clan willing to take on the responsibility of running the day-to-day affairs of the Temple. Even getting a Priest to do the daily Puja was difficult because no one wanted to subsist on just Daan/Dakshina and a meagre salary. By doing office jobs they could earn in thousands, get retirement benefits, buy their own house, get lots of respect from the public at large – if they remained Priests, they neither got any respect nor did they get any income. The intangible spiritual benefits seemed very small compared to the material benefits of working in other fields. The other community youngsters too did not want to be washing the Deity’s clothes or playing instruments in the Temple everyday. More money was to be made by taking up a job or owning a car or a rickshaw service or even working in factories. Bhagwan Mahadev Shambhu was the last person in their mind.

Slowly only the Brahmin clan members and the employed Priests remained to do Seva to Bhagwan, just like it was when the Temple was built. Now again, it was their Temple and their responsibility. All expenses too were only their responsibility. Mechanical drums were played on the speaker during Puja time and the flowers came from the homes of the clan members. Auspicious days rituals and traditions also were the responsibility of the Brahmin clan members. The other communities came as and when they pleased. But Bhagwan remained the Gram Devata and blessed the entire village, since for Him, all were his creation.