C.S. RANGARAJAN

C S Rangarajan belongs to the family of Hereditary Archaka cum Trustees of the famous Sri Chilkur Balaji Venkateswara Swamy Temple of Telangana State. He completed his B.E (Biomedical Engineering) from the Osmania University in June, 1988. He was educated in Agama Sastras as well and passed Archaka Pravesha Exam in 1995. He worked in many Medical Device companies before quitting the Engineering Profession to join in the Service of the Almighty at Chilkur at an age of 35 years. He felt this was a calling of God to help the worshippers at the Temple have a better devotional experience through his service. Most important is the fact that he has been assisting his father Dr M V Soundara Rajan in running the Temples Protection Movement from Chilkur Balaji temple which has set a unique trend against Commercialisation and Politicisation of Temple worship. He assists his father in running the Trilingual Monthly Journal VAK which is the voice of Temples. He has always been striving for revival of ancient temples and has played a key role in sensitizing the devotees on the need to revive the ancient temples in their ancestral villages. He has also taken keen interest in the welfare of the society at large by not only striving for inculcating devotional spirit in the devotees visiting Chilkur temple but also ensuring that the temple plays a role in the upliftment of the weaker sections through such innovative initiatives as motivating devotees to wear handlooms on Saturdays providing support to the weavers’ community. He has also played a major role in the movement to reform the temple system and also highlighting the pitiable state of the Archaka community leading eventually to the amendment of the draconian 30/87 Andra Pradesh Endowments Act . He has been instrumental in development of the Conservation manual for the Endowments Department by REACH Foundation. His LLM Thesis is now being published by the Temples Protection Movement