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Sankarapuram - the Chaturveda village in Kadhiramangalam, Thanjavur district

Sankarapuram Chakravarthi MahaPeriyava

As prescribed in the Shastras, the primary role of a Brahmin is to be involved in performing his Nithya Anushthanams, which includes among others, Sandhyavandanam and Agnihotram. These two are extremely important. Of course, it needs to be mentioned in the same breath that I'm nobody to categorize the prescribed Anushthanams as more important or less important. But we have seen MahaPeriyava, the 68th Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, laying enormous amount of importance of at least performing Thrikaala Sandhyavandanam on a daily basis. So it dawns on my humble intelligence that regular Sandhyavandanam must be adhered to.

With the passage of time, Brahmins began to move out of Agraharams in the search of full time jobs and the time that they had on their hands for doing these Nithya Anushthanams was seriously compromised. In cities, the infrastructure for performing these Nithya Anushthanams was also unavailable. For example, a cow and calf needs to be in the house for a Brahmin to practice Nithya Agnihotram. Which house in an Indian city today provides space for a Goshala ? (That too, not the Jersey cow mind you, cow of the native breed only!) Moreover, earning money became the primary motive for the Brahmin community too. All these factors joined forces and led to the Brahmin community as a whole abandoning their raison d'être of existence.

The only saving grace, for the most part, probably has been that Brahmins today do not eat meat.


In the good old days, the Nithya Anushthanams of the Brahmins was the single largest factor contributing to the well-being of the society. The Brahmin was supposed to live for the sake of the others, all his activities were supposed to be for the good of the society. He was forbidden from venturing out and earning his income. The onus of providing the Brahmins with a livelihood was on the kings and other philanthropists in the society. The kings knew that as long as the Brahmin community was focused on doing their prescribed activities, monthly rains were pretty much guaranteed. It was a quid-pro-quo situation. The king had a vested interest in his kingdom being prosperous and so he ensured the Brahmins were supported. But with the disintegration of this model as well, Brahmins were no longer guaranteed a livelihood and were left to fend for themselves. It was only natural that they set out to earn a living.

In a land where once, every Brahmin was doing Nithya Agnihotram, there are just 20 Brahmins in entire Tamil Nadu who are still adhering to this practice.

The results of this new order of things are there for us to see all around us. I guess I don’t need to elaborate.

Maha Periyava, when He was in His physical form, always spoke about the importance of Brahmins doing their Nithya Anushthanams. But dimwits that we are, we did not and still do not listen to His advice. But MahaKarunamoorthy that He is, even after He ceased in exist in His physical form, He is still striving for our welfare in Sookshmam form. HE has identified worthy people to carry out His commands. One such person is Shri Vakil Venkata Subramaniam, Chennai

Vakil Anna

Vakil Anna is a great devotee of Maha Periyava. Having read and assimilated Shri Ra Ganapati Anna's Deivathin Kural, he and his wife have transformed their lives completely and are living a life of a Brahmin as directed by Maha Periyava. From attire to food habits to daily Anushthanams, Shri Vakil Anna is following Maha Periyava's directions not only in word but also in spirit. It may surprise many that Vakil Anna has not seen MahaPeriyava even once in his life !

Acting upon the divine guidance of Maha Periyava Himself, Vakil Anna has identified the stoppage of Nithya Agnihotram by Brahmins as the single largest factor that has pushed our society into the immoral abyss that it is in today. If the society has to climb out this abyss, we need our Brahmins (or at least a small percentage of them) to revive the practice of Nithya Agnihotram in addition to all the other prescribed Anushthanams. All these activities done in the proper way needs over 8 hours of dedicated time on a daily basis. But if these Brahmins are to spend over 8 hours per day doing these prescribed Anushthanams, what about their livelihood ? How will they care for their families ? In this time and age, we do not have kings and philanthropists to take care of these Brahmins.

Imagine a situation where 108 Brahmins congregate upon a place and revive the practice of Nithya Agnihotram along with all the other Anushthanams prescribed for them. Imagine a place where an infrastructure is created for sustaining these Brahmins and their families so that they can focus solely on their Anushthanams without having to worry about earning a livelihood. Imagine a place too where groceries, milk and other essentials are regularly delivered free of cost to their doorstep. Imagine a situation where 108 Brahmins who are dedicated towards their Anushthanams are given large, modern houses to live in. Imagine a situation where these Brahmins are given native breed cows and calves so essential for carrying out Nithya Agnihotram. Imagine a Veda Paathashala thriving in the vicinity. Imagine, in short, an island of Vedic excellence !

Kadhiramangalam is a village in the Thiruvidaimarudur revenue block of Thanjavur district. On the direct commands of MahaPeriyava in His Sookshmam form, Vakil Anna is in the process of creating a project of gargantuan proportions. On a land of over 85 acres acquired by him and named Sankarapuram in honour of MahaPeriyava, Vakil Anna is putting together brick by brick, this island of Vedic excellence. Work on this project has been going on silently for the past several years. It is only recently that MahaPeriyava has given permission for its publicity. Vakil Anna and his team of dedicated volunteers have been working on this project as their life mission.
• Vaideeka Brahmins are being identified to perform the prescribed Anushthanams, including Agnihotram, and to teach Vedas to students in the Paathashala
• Houses are being constructed and are to be registered in the name of these Vaideeka Brahmins
• Process of acquiring native breed cows that can be given to these Vaideeka Brahmins to aid in Nithya Agnihotram activity, is going on. As mentioned earlier Agnihotram cannot be performed without a lactating cow and a calf in the house
• A huge temple for MahaPeriyava is also coming up in Sankarapuram
• A corpus fund has been set up and the maintenance and running of this project will happen from the interest accrued from that fund

Other salient points of this project (this from the official literature published by the Sankarapuram management):
1. Gruham having constructed area of 1300 sq ft (2 bedrooms in ground floor, kitchen, hall and one bedroom in first floor, three bathrooms and three toilets. One yajnashaala, goshala, thinnai, pant tiled elevation roof for the main entrance, four wooden pillars and a tulasi dome. The gruham will be gated and surrounded by green tree barricades
2. Sankarapuram will have four streets named after the divine Vedas, Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana and each street will have 27 Gruhams - for a total of 27*4=108 gruhams
3. All the 108 Agnihotris will receive salary ("Sambhavana") on a monthly basis along with free groceries including day to day needs, vegetables etc from the interest of the corpus fund
4. Maintenance charges, electricity, water and drainage system etc will be paid from the corpus fund interest
5. Sri Sankarapuram campus will be totally covered with compound wall granite pillars, solar street lights
6. All the 108 gruhams will have a cow and calf of native breed and will be maintained from the corpus fund interest
7. 108 Agnihotris will perform diving rituals and preach/teach Vedas for about 200 vedic vidyartis (two vidyartis per Agnihotri precisely) on a daily basis. They will accomplish this by permanently living in Sankarapuram and by not moving out for Vaitheegam
8. Veda Samrakshana kaingarya scheme solicits 5000 donors making a one-time fixed deposit (permanent, no withdrawals) in the bank/s termed as corpus fund in turn converted into fixed deposits, from which the interest generated will be utilized for the monthly salaries and other expenses of the Agnihotris and Sankarapuram
9. The 5000 donors of Veda Samrakshana kaingarya scheme will be provided with comfortable stay, hygienic food in "Yatri Nivas" for two of their visits in a year at no cost
10. Plan to issue a brass plated (called pattayam in olden days) receipt for the donations received from the 5000 donors of Veda Samrakshana kaingarya scheme
11. All the names of the 5000 donors along with nakshatra and gothra will be sculpted/engraved on a granite stone to be instituted at Sri Sankarapuram MahaPeriyava Gurukula Gurudham
12. Any auspicious functions of 5000 donors can be performed in Yaga Salai subject to availability on rent free basis


Vakil Anna had chartered two full compartments on the Myladuthurai Express about a month back (in August 2018) and about 144 of us from Bangalore were invited to visit Sankarapuram, stay there for two days and take a look at the upcoming projects. The travel, stay and food were completely free of cost ! Contingents like this are being arranged from various other cities like Salem, Chennai etc every month.
Personally, I'm overawed by the size and noble intentions of this project. As can be imagined, for a project of this size, there has to be crowd sourcing. Not only for the corpus fund that needs to reach a critical mass so as to generate enough interest for the maintenance of this project once complete, funds are also needed for the continued maintenance of the project.

Contributions can be made to Sri Sankarapuram MahaPeriyava Agnihotrigal Gurukula Gramam, also known as SSMAGG
City Union Bank, Mount Road branch
SB A/C number 500101011846383
IFSC CIUB0000049
Vakil Anna can be reached at +91 98410 32959

I encourage each one of you to speak personally to Vakil Anna who can provide much more details on how MahaPeriyava is Himself orchestrating each and every small detail in this project

http://www.srisankarapuram.com/