At a recent event in Madras, to celebrate the golden jubilee of the dance career of Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (India), J. Jayalalitha, offered her government's support to Dr. Padma to build a temple in honour of sage Bharatha (the author of Natyashastra) in Tamil Nadu. Is the temple idea a timely one? Or is there a better alternative than just a temple? Maybe a theatre space?

Here are the responses received at KutcheriBuzz:

Prize winning entry Tamil Nadu is one of the few states in India where new born babies are named after Ravana, Duryodhana, Dussasana and others. Tamil Nadu is also one state where you can see temples for film stars. Most of the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu where from commercial films beginning from MGR, Karunanidhi to Jayalalitha. While appreciating veteran exponent of Bharata Natyam, Padma Subramanyam for the yeoman service done to classical dance, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has agreed to provide land to construct a temple for the author of Natya Shastra, Bharata Muni. Temple issue seems to be the main topic in India in this decade. Now this issue is spreading from national level to regional levels. Does constructing a temple in honour of the great Bharata is the only way to bring respect to classical dance? This is a topic to be debated. Padma Subramanyam with her experience and vision could have asked for an auditoirum instead. A traditional performance space like a Koothambalam as prescribed in Natya Shastra. Suppose a Bharata temple comes up in Tamil Nadu, it will pave the way for other creative minds to construct temples as detailed below: A temple in Kerala in honour of Zamorin Maharaja for Kathakali, a temple in Assam in honour of Shankara Deva for Sattriya, a temple in Uttar Pradesh in honour of Kathakars for Kathak, a temple in Orissa in honour of some gurus or Jayadeva for Odissi, a temple in Uttaranchal in honour of Uday Shankar for modern dance and so on. Cultural India can then take pride in having maximum number of temples in honour of great humans. A sure entry into Guinness book of records. However this temple idea seems to be an encouraging one for politians since it can create employment opportunites. More temples will create employment opportunity to many priests. While temples for Gods have a certain prescribed pujas to be done from dawn to dusk, temples on human does not have one. Again employment opportunity to experts to work out new prescriptions. It is time that the Central Government considers opening a new Minsitry called 'Ministry for Temple Affairs'. Again more employment opportunity, funds allocation, regional offices, training centres etc. In this age of coalition Governments, it will also help to provide the 'Ministry for Temple affairs' to one of the coalition partners. Again employment opportunity. G.S. Rajan New Delhi