Hyderabad: One of the prime objectives of the mass marriages performed by the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) was to bring Dalits into Hindu fold while re-kindling their faith in ancient Vedic culture, TTD board chairman K Karunakara Reddy said here today.
"Some status-quoists of the society maintained the spiritual and social ostracisation of the Dalit and Tribal sections for centuries for their vested interests. Thus, the marginalised masses considered themselves outside the elated Vedic culture, which originally preaches egalitarianism," he told reporters.
As part of its "mission" of getting two lakh poor couples tie the nuptial knot annually under "Kalyanamasthu", TTD yesterday conducted 4,654 marriages in its 293 centres across Andhra Pradesh.
"TTD’s unprecedented and historic endeavour has a strong connotation of checking the religious conversions also," Reddy said.
According to him, the downtrodden sections were certainly allured for even meagre benefits to change their religion.
"Almighty’s message of equality, oneness has been deliberately kept aloof from them. TTD has initiated to spread the Lord’s message and Kalyanamasthu was the first step," he averred.
He announced that the second phase of similar marriages will be held on August 26 and asked people to get registered for it with self-affidavits.
(PTI)
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