SWAMI SRI VEERABRAHMENDRA

A Monograph on Pothuluru Veerabrahmendra Swamy

The Reform of Dharma Peetham

In India there were a number of Hindu Dharma Peethams such as the Gayatri Peetham, the Savitri Peetham, the Saraswathi Peetham, the Sankara Peetham and the like. A Peetham was an official seat of the Guru of the principal religion. From the time of Sankara Bhagavatpada, the Sringeri and Pushpagiri Peethams gained vide publicity and were enjoying great reputation.

The Muslim invaders on many occasions in their religious intolerance and anger concentrated their attacks on the Dharma Peethams of the Hindus.

These Peethams suffered a lot, on account of the repeated attacks, but withstood the test of times. They survived and continued to operate effectively when the time was favourable for their prosperity. The Pushpagiri Peetham of Cuadapah District was one among them.

Here in this context the Pushpagiri episode in the lifestory of Veerabrahmam is to be mentioned.

During the period of Krishnadevaraya, the Pushpagiri temple had undergone a few changes regarding the in¬stallation of the temple priests. The Andhra Pradesh District Gazetteers - Cuddapah (page 87 of the Revised Edition, 1967) records the social conditions that prevailed in Pushpagiri during the first quarter of the sixteenth century thus: “Krishnadevaraya’s visit to the Pushpagiri temple has brought to light some of the interesting social conditions, then prevailing. The priests at the temple were Tambalas by caste. But Krishnadevaraya, thinking that they were Tambalas and not Brahmins, replaced them with the latter and granted them Goturu and Pushpagiri as agraharas.”

The Tambalas otherwise called Sivarchakas i.e., the priests at the temple of Siva are considered to be a subsect of Brahmin. But the popularly known subsect is the Vaidika sect. Krishnadevaraya must have replaced Tambalas with the popularly known Vaidika subsect of Brahmins.

Right from then onwards the Pushpagiri Agraharam has gone into the hands of Brahmans whose numbers; gradually increased.

Ever since Krishnadevaraya granted this agraharam to Brahmins they were comfortably settled and began to lead quite a luxurious life.