Suhanjana, TN's newly appointed female odhuvar takes charge at Chennai temple

A 28-year-old Suhanjana Gopinath made headlines after she was handed the appointment order as female Odhuvar (one who chants hymns) by Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday, August 14. Twenty four trained priests, overall 208 persons of all castes were given appointment orders by the CM on behalf of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department. The trained archakas have been waiting for government positions for more than 13 years.

Suhanjana who took the position of odhuvar at Dhenupureeswarar Temple at Madambakkam in Chennai studied under Karur Saminathan who insisted that Suhanjana spread the message of Thevaram and Thiruvasagam among people, as per a report on The Hindu.

Suhanjana further in her report to The Hindu says that her husband and in-laws have been supportive of her choice. The family currently plans to relocate their house near to the temple as Suhanjana is willing to take her child to the temple with her.

Meanwhile, a few reports say that during the former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s regime in 2006, the first woman Odhuvar was appointed in 2007.

HR&CE Minister PK Sekar Babu during the event said that the dream of Periyar has become a reality. In 1970, EV Ramaswami popularly known as Periyar by Tamils insisted that all caste members should become temple priests as not allowing them to perform prayers is discriminatory. Periyar called the discrimination as a ‘thorn in his heart’.

Followed by this, the DMK government passed a law the same year, on this. The law was however challenged in the Supreme Court in 1972 which ruled against it. However, late Karunanidhi in 2006 after assuming the charge and subsequently passing the order for priests to be employed in all temples, said that ‘‘thorn in Periyar’s heart has been removed.”

It is to be noted that Tamil Nadu currently had only two non-Brahmin archakas under the HR&CE department. Marisamy, the first priest was appointed in 2018 at Ayyappan temple in Madurai, while the second priest Thyagarajan was appointed in 2020 at Ganesha temple also in Madurai.