KADAPA: Here’s a temple with a difference. While women devotees normally offer ‘pongallu’ (a rice-based offering), especially in temples of village deities, the right to make the offering at Sanjeevaraya Alayam rests exclusively with men. The peculiarity of this open temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman Tippayapalle village of Pullampet mandal in the district does not end there.
Women are not allowed into the temple. Girls, who have not attained puberty, however, are permitted. Adhering to the centuries- old tradition, men from all households in the village took the ingredients and vessels to cook ‘pongallu’ to the temple on the Sunday ahead of ‘Makara Sankranti’. After performing special pujas, they cook ‘pongallu’ and offer it to the presiding deity.
The ‘prasadam’ from the temple are not given to women. “It has been a long tradition and we have been following it for generations. For our villagers, today’s ritual is far more important than Sankranti,” Ramesh Naidu from Tippayapalle, told TNIE. Another villager Srinvasulu said offering prayers to Sanjeevaraya will protect their families from illness, bad omens, and most importantly, they will be blessed with prosperity.
This strong belief sees villagers, who have migrated to other places, even abroad, make it a point to visit the village to participate in the ritual. Village elders say that several hundreds of years ago, an elderly ‘sadhu’ (ascetic) visited the village and stayed there for some time. He installed the idol of Lord Hanuman and named him Sanjeevaraya. The ‘sadhu’ accepted food only from men -- that too prepared by men. While leaving the village, he left some instructions with the village elders and said that praying to Sanjeevaraya will ensure health and prosperity.
The villagers followed the ‘sadhu’s’ advise, and village prospered. It is believed that God himself visited the village in the guise of the ‘sadhu.’ There is another lore as well. According to it, a Brahmin visited the village while was in the grip of illness and famine. The Brahmin installed a stone with inscriptions, which in course of time, came to be worshipped as Sanjeevaraya.