CHENNAI, INDIA, August 16,2012 (Murali Krishnan, ABC) : A shortage of Hindu priests in India has seen members of the religious caste start to benefit in very material ways. And many who once travelled abroad to service the congregations of the Indian diaspora are now deciding it’s much more worthwhile to stay at home. This has become very apparent in Tamil Nadu, the cradle of Dravidian culture. T. K. Ganapathy, a retired professor explains the success of these priests.” The priests who are performing rituals, they are few and far between. And when there is a great demand for priests, they are not able to cater to those who want and therefore they demand more. Some of them fly to other countries but there are still some priests who stay back in India and they say what they would earn in foreign countries, they are able to earn here because of the limited supply.
For a fee ranging from a few thousand rupees to heftier undisclosed amounts, the priestly class has hit pay dirt. Chief priest V. M. Sundaram says there is a new found interest among young priests to learn scriptures of Hinduism. Sriram, a 16 year-old Vedic student says ” I did not like studies in regular school. That is why opted to study Vedas in a town in Salem. I developed an interest and now I have learnt quite a bit. I like it.” The growth of Hindu nationalism in India as well as the Tamil Nadu state government’s favorable religious policies have also contributed partly to the success of Brahman temple priests. It is now a vocation that many have taken to. Considering they are in short supply, priests have become more “professional” and modern-minded while also insisting on the legitimacy of tradition.