HYDERABAD, INDIA, June 20, 2007: Beads of sweat form on priest Vedantacharya’s forehead as he struggles to pronounce the words on the sheet before him. “Hi, how do you do?” he chants as if reciting a Sanskrit shloka. “Good morning, nice to meet you.” Knowledge of the Vedas and Sanskrit are no longer enough for ambitious priests in Andhra Pradesh. The ability to speak English has suddenly become just as important.
It began in March when job offers at Hindu temples in the West started appearing in newspapers, Telugu television channels and websites. Hundreds of priests in the state have since then made a beeline for spoken-English centers. The rush has led several Vedic schools, and even temples, to offer crash courses in the language. “The priests will be conducting the rituals in Sanskrit, of course, at the American temples,” said Dantu Nagarjuna Sarma of Imprint Astrological and Vedic Research Centre here, “but they must be able to speak English if they are to live there.”
That, and a lot more. The priests are being taught to send emails from PCs and text messages from mobiles — in English, of course. Acharyas who have never looked beyond the dhoti are being groomed in the art of slipping into casual shirts and trousers. “We advise the pandits on how they should dress abroad while travelling to and from a temple or a religious function,” Sarma said. “Hindu priests have been known to be detained for indecent dressing because they were wearing just a dhoti. We tell them they must never step out bare-bodied.” The syllabus includes the low-down on how to find vegetarian food.