Bhadradri Temple in tussle with US temple over use of its name

The authorities are now mulling to take legal recourse from preventing the temple's name from being misused in the wake of a US-based organisation collecting donations using the Bhadradri Temple's name

Kothagudem: The Bhadrachalam Sri Seetha Ramachandra Swamy Devasthanam is caught in a controversy with the temple authorities accusing an upcoming Lord Rama temple in the United States of misusing the Bhadradri Temple’s name.

The authorities are now mulling to take legal recourse from preventing the temple’s name from being misused in the wake of a US-based organisation collecting donations using the Bhadradri Temple’s name.

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The temple officials are said to be planning to apply for a patent for the temple’s name. But according to legal experts, patent laws does not protect a name or a title.

It was said that an upcoming temple ‘Bhadradri Sri Rama Temple of USA’ at Cumming, GA, USA for which a priest Archakam Padmanabha Acharyulu acts as a chairman undertook a Khagola Yatra (Bhoomandala Pradakshina) and was performing shanti poojas across the globe and was slated to perform ‘kalyanam’ at Bhadrachalam on September 17.

The temple executive officer L Rama Devi told the media that using the Bhadradri Sri Rama name by any other organisation was improper and that the Bhadrachalam Sri Seetha Ramachandra Swamy Devasthanam had no connection with the US temple.

Donations were collected for the yatra and for the construction of temple in the US.

A complaint with regard to the US temple’s activities was lodged with the Endowment department and legal action would be initiated against its organisers.

The issue came to notice when the organisers called on her to invite her to the kalyanam, she said.

Bhadradri Temple authorities also issued show cause notices to chief priest Podicheti Seetharamanuja Charyulu and a priest Seetharam for taking part in the kalyanam at Bhadrachalam on Tuesday.

On the other hand, Bhadradri Sri Rama Temple of USA chief priest Padmanabhacharyulu, speaking to the media at Bhadrachalam on Wednesday, denied the allegations made by Bhadradri Temple authorities that they were building a temple in the US by collecting donations in the name of Bhadradri Temple.

Many people across the country had built many shops, temples and many organisations in the name of Bhadradri and the US-based organisation was also building a temple in that name with good intentions only, he said, adding that since they started building the temple, with the permission of the Bhadradri Temple authorities, poojas were performed at Bhadrachalam and idols were taken for installation in the temple in the US.

Bhadradri Temple authorities, who did not raise any objection in the last nine years, were now wrongfully accusing the US organisation of collecting donations in the US in the name of the Bhadrachalam temple, he said, also pointing out that the Bhadradri Temple authorities had not taken any patent rights in Bhadradri’s name or on the photos of the ‘Moolavarlu’ (deities).

The names of the temple in the US and at Bhadrachalam were different, he added.