Dearth of priests affects Sorha Shraddha rituals

By Hari Prasad Koirala,Urlabari, Sept. 26: The closure of Gurukul system and Sanskrit secondary schools and the disaffection of the new generation to Sanskrit language have resulted in acute shortage of priests to perform Shraddha this Sorha Shraddha in Morang. 

The men of the Khas Arya community, many of whom do not wear the sacred thread (Janai), perform the Baratabandha (sacred thread-wearing ceremony) of their sons with much fanfare, and the number of people performing Shraddha has, of late, increased, but the number of priests to perform these rituals is constantly declining. 

The priests of the old generation have either become unable to walk because of old age or died.   As a result, there is a shortage of priests who can perform Shraddha. 

Deepak Parajuli, a lecturer at Pindeshwar Vidyapeeth and a ritual expert, said that the government had done nothing to revive Gurukul and it had converted Sanskrit secondary schools into ordinary ones, which has culminated in the dearth of priests. He said that these institutions were sources to produce priests, and they were made dysfunctional for no apparent reason.   

According to Dayaram Subedi of Kanepokhari-6, although the demand for priests at other times is quite low, their demand is high during Sorha Shraddha. Now the festival of Sorha Shraddha is in progress, but many Shraddha performers are not finding priests to perform the ritual. 

Worse than the situation when the available limited priests cannot perform Shraddha for technical reasons like the birth of a baby or the death of his relatives, he said, adding that at such times they have no option but to manage with the other available priests. Subedi further said that there are three levels of government, and they spend millions of rupees on various types of training, but they hardly provide and training to prepare priests. 

People of Urlabari, Patharishanischare and Kanepokhari in Morang complain that they face a shortage of priests during the Rishi Panchami Puja of Teej, Swasthani Puja and Sorha Shraddha also known as Pitri Pakshya. 

It takes at least three hours for skilled gurus to complete a Shraddha during the Pitri Pakshya. There is a religious belief that Sorha Shraddha should be started in the mid-day. According to our scriptures, one priest is prohibited from performing more than one Shradhha a day during the Pitri Pakshya. 

However, due to the lack of priests in villages, a priest performs as many as three Shraddhas a day thanks to the shortage of priests.  

Priest Ramesh Nepal of Hoklabari, Kanepokhari-1, said that there is a compulsion to perform Shraddha after being called by the performers with shaved heads. Nepal said, “The performer visits me asking to perform his father’s Shraddha citing that he did not find any priest. As such, I have no option.” 

The performer does not believe that it should not be performed in two places in a single day, he said. 

Moreover, when brothers living in a joint family get separated and each brother needs separate priests, there will be a need for more priests to perform Shraddha of a single man, Nepal said.   

According to him, he is invited for all 16 days of Sorha Shraddha to perform the Shraddha. 

Bidur Bhattarai of Patharishanischare-9 migrated to Taeri from Khotang four years ago. He did not get the priest in the first year of his migration. 

Since then, Bhattarai has managed to find a priest visiting the neighbouring municipality. He said that the attraction to the job of priest has, of late, increased, and it has emerged as a lucrative profession. Bhattarai, however, said it was difficult to meet the demand due to a lack of institutions to produce new priests.

Moreover, many people who did not perform Shraddha in the past have now started inviting priests to perform Sorha Shraddha. This has also invited a shortage of priests, said Parajuli.

He said that even the community beyond the Brahmins and Chhetris have also started calling priests to their homes in Sorha Shraddha and offering them money and goods. According to him, there is a shortage of priests in the village rather than in the city. 

He said that due to the closure of Sanskrit Gurukul and Sanskrit Secondary Schools, skilled manpower could not be produced to perform rituals. 

According to Parajuli, it is mandatory for the guru who performs Shraddha to eat food at the performer’s house. Gurus can perform Shraddha in another place without eating food. This was also the reason for keeping Kush’s Rishi.

Even as time becomes modern people do not leave their religion, culture, and tradition. Therefore, performers said that the shortage of priests will worsen in the further if Sanskrit education and Gurukul are not managed.