Summary:
A meeting between the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams pundit committee, which has declared Tirumala as the birthplace, and Sri Hanumad Janmabhoomi Theertha Kshetra Trust was held in Tirupati on Thursday, but there was no headway despite over three hours of deliberations.
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The impasse over the birthplace of Lord Hanuman continues.
A meeting between the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams pundit committee, which has declared Tirumala as the birthplace, and Sri Hanumad Janmabhoomi Theertha Kshetra Trust was held in Tirupati on Thursday, but there was no headway despite over three hours of deliberations.
Govindananda Saraswati Swami, founder of the trust, stuck with his stance and refuted TTD’s claims that Anjanadri hillock in Tirumala was the birthplace of Lord Hanuman.
The seer said there is no clarity in TTD’s claims and pointed out that while they conclude that the monkey god was born in Anjanadri, they are sticking to three different birthdates which isn’t conclusive at all.
“You can form a committee and within four months time declare that this (Anjanadri) is the birthplace.
You need to consult other stakeholders like the Chinna Jeeyar Swami, the Shankaracharya,” Govindananda said.
In the evening, TTD’s pundit committee addressed a press meet refuting Govindananda’s claims that Hanuman was born at Anjanahalli on the banks of river Pampa near Hampi in Karnataka.
“The swamiji could not prove his point beyond reasonable doubt, while we have cited the puranas and epical evidences to strengthen our claims,” National Sanskrit University vice-chancellor V Muralidhara Sharma, who heads the TTD committee, said.
The debate ended with moderator Kuppa Viswanatha Sharma declaring the findings of TTD commitee as “concrete”, while stating that the arguments of the Hampi seer “lacked substance and proper evidence”.