Sivaachaaryas

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

--- Vivek Anand Ganesan <v_ganesan at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>   There are prominent places of pilgrimage in Tamil
> Nadu
> which have endowed seats of authority called
> Adheenams. The
> Adheenams initiate and train people to be Saivite
> priests,
> i.e. sivaachaaryas.  The sivaachaaryas wear a thick,
> single
> layer chord in lieu of the yajnopavitam and perform
> agamic
> rituals in the temples.

I think you are confusing Saiva Adhinams with
Sivacharyas. Sivacharyas are brAhmaNa-s and in fact
hold smArta-s as lower kind of brahmins. Only a few
families are authorized to be Sivacharyas. The Saiva
Agamas also talk about them. Thanks to probably the
syncretic efforts of Appayya Dixita, the Saiva
Acharyas interact easily with smArtas these days.
One of the most famous figures in temple building
outside India is the Madurai Sivacharya. His
son-in-law is a priest in the Lakshmi temple in
Massachussets. The Sivacharya of the Kalikamba kovil
in Madras is also a high profile figure.

On the other hand, the Adhinams are from the Saiva
Vellala caste. Some of them indeed interacted with the
Dravida Kazagam folks. But relationships with smArtas
are not always hostile. Mahasannidhanam of Sringeri
interacted well with at least some of the Adhinams.

Rama

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