Interview with Sriman Muralidhar Bhattar and Sri Vasudevan

When Lord Caitanya went to Srirangam he stayed at the house of Venkata Bhattar. Venkata had a brother named Tirumalla Bhattar; Muralidhar Bhattar is his descendant. Muralidhar’s family home came to be known as “Mahaprabhu Sadanam” because of Gaurangadeva’s stay there.

In the early and mid 1970s ISKCON devotees (Acyutananda Swami, Yashodanandana Swami, Bhanu Swami and others) stayed at the home of the head archaka (pujari) of Srirangam, Sriman Rangaraja Bhattar, the father of Muralidhar Bhattar, hence Muralidhar has been friends with ISKCON since his teens.

In those days (mid 1970s) there was a lot of criticism in India that ISKCON was not bonafide. To remedy that Rangaraja Bhattar wrote an open letter of behalf of the Sri Sampradaya (Srirangam is the chief divyadesham of the Sri Sampradaya and he was head priest) stating that “ISKCON is bonafide” and a member of one of the four recognized Vaisnava Sampradayas. ISKCON BBT had that letter printed in the 10s of thousands and it was widely distributed by our preachers. This was a major favourable turning point for ISKCON’s preaching especially in South India.

His family has also watched over the Jagannatha temple across from their home and for generations they have welcomed Gaudiya vaisnavas who have come from all over India and now from all over the world on holy pilgrimage to the places where Lord Caitanya had His pastimes in Srirangam.

Muralidhar Prabhu jokingly says that he is half Gaudiya and half Sri and every year he does special aradhana for Lord Caitanya on Gaura Purnima. His wife, Srimati Ramamani devi, has even gone with local ISKCON devotees for the Brajamandala Parikrama. He has worked with ISKCON on several cooperative projects especially at the Goparbhatti temple that he excavated and rebuilt. An ISKCON devotee is on the board of trustees of that temple and several ISKCON devotees have helped manage it. Thus Muralidhar Bhattar and his family have a long history of sincere affection and friendship toward ISKCON and the Gaudiya sampradaya.

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