Click to play videoBangalore: Ananth Padmanabha Somayaji was the chief priest of Pashupathinath temple before he handed over charge in 2001, and obviously he is pained by all that's unfolding in Nepal.
"Whatever they do, they should still keep an Indian, a south Indian priest. It's auspicious to go by that tradition," says he.
For more than 30 years, Somayaji was a priest at the temple carrying on a tradition of hundreds of years. While there were always murmurs of dissent among the Nepalis, he says there was still a lot of bonhomie for the Hindu priests who travelled to serve their god.
"It's been there since the times of Adi Shankaracharya. It was ordained by the rishis and saints. The feeling of friendship and interactions between nations is brought about by such a tradition. We go and live there, our culture is taken there," says he.
Legend has it that Shankaracharya challenged a Buddhist priest to a debate that he later won. His reward - only priests from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh would preside over the rites at Pashupatinath temple and it should be done in Vedic tradition.
Though priests from all three states are allowed to officiate at the Pashupatinath temple for the last 100 years, it's been priests from Karnataka who have had the honour of being officiating.
And many of them were so emotionally attached to that lord that they still worship him in a smaller manner in their own homes - first thing in the morning, before they even eat anything.
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