The Shivamogga district administration has ordered a probe into the alleged animal sacrifice in Karnataka’s ‘Sanskrit Village’.
According to The Times of India, though the organisers of the event denied animal sacrifice, the district administration has directed the police to look into the matter. It has also asked the panchayat development officer to submit a report to the zilla panchayat.
According to a report in Kannada daily Prajavani, a section of villagers organized the ‘Soma Yaga’ for the ‘good of the world’ between April 22 and 26. The yaga was organized in Srikantapura, which is on the outskirts of Mattur in Shivamogga taluk, by a group of Sankethi Brahmins.
The organizer, Dr Sanathkumar, told Prajavani: “I don’t want to issue any statement. I am not the spokesperson of the community. The discussion on the issue is unwarranted.”
After the animals were sacrificed, the priests and participants of the sacrifice consumed the meat cooked in the fire.
The Sankethi Brahmins are a sect which believes in the Advaita philosophy and in animal sacrifice. However, most of the villagers were opposed to the animal sacrifice, Prajavani reported.
As many as 17 priests from different parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh conducted the yaga day and night without a break.
Superintendent of police Ravi D Channannavar told TOI that the police were clueless as there were no complaints made by the villagers about the animal sacrifice.
Rationalist scholar, KS Bhagavan asked for a probe into the Yajna. “Yajna means sacrifice. It is an age old tradition, one which has been opposed since the time of the Buddha,” he said.
The Karnataka Prevention of Animal Sacrifice Act, 1959, prohibits animal sacrifice in or within the precincts of Hindu temples.