THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Perhaps, one of the biggest contributions of P Parameswaran, affectionately called Parameswarji, was popularising the Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita among the ordinary Hindu families in Kerala.
Ramayana Masacharanam or the observance of Ramayana month in the Malayalam month of Karkkidakam at Hindu temples and homes was a concept mooted by Parameswarji at the Vishala Hindu Sammelanam held in Kochi in the late 1970s, said Ajayyakumar RS, a longtime associate of Parameswaran.
“The event also witnessed a revolution of sorts when Paravoor Sreedharan Thantri, the first non-Brahmin thantri, was assisted by the Brahmin thantri of Sooryakaladi Mana in the poojas. That too was Parameswarji’s idea,” he said.
The sammelanam was noted for the huge participation of ordinary people from different places between Kasaragod and Kanyakumari, said Prof C V Jayamani, governing council member of the Bharateeya Vichara Kendram (BVK). In 1982, Parameswaran established BVK in the Kerala capital to carry out studies on national reconstruction. The Geetha Swadhyaya Samithi founded by Parameswaran, a forum to popularise the Bhagavad Gita, has branches in all taluks in the state.
The RSS ideologue’s wide circle of friends was curious. His friendship with Marxist ideologue P Govinda Pillai started in the early 1940s when both were the disciples of Agamananda Swamikal at the Sankaracharya Ashram, Kalady. Both of them quit the ashram halfway, but the camaraderie continued.
It was a strong personal relationship with Parameswaran that prompted CPI leader and former chief minister C Achutha Menon to sanction a grant to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari.
Menon’s predecessor and Communist chief minister E M S Namboothiripad had earlier refused a donation to the memorial. “Top leaders of the RSS and BJP consulted Parameswarji on their Kerala operations. He was close to writer and economist S Gurumurthy,” he said.