Chennai, Aug 6 (IANS): After the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) Minister, P.K. Sekarbabu inaugurated the Tamil Archanai at Kapaleeswar temple, Mylapore, the archanai in all 46 temples commenced on Friday.

Sri Ranganathar Swamy temple in Srirangam, Meenakshi Amman temple in Madurai, Peruvudayiar temple in Thanjavur are among the 46 major temples of Tamil Nadu where 'archanai' (prayers) began on Friday.

In 1971, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister late M. Karunanidhi had mooted the idea of Tamil archanai in temples across the state and the then HR & CE Minister, Kannapan had even made an announcement. However, it was not taken forward owing to some constraints.

On Friday, the priests commenced chanting the 'Potri' (archanai) in Tamil. The practice had been to chant the 'potri' in Sanskrit.

The HR&CE Ministry has prepared a set of 14 different 'Potris' and the booklets were distributed to the identified priests.

The Tamil Nadu government is planning to extend the facility to other temples in the state if there is a demand from the local population. The HR&CE department will also allow "Kumbabishekham" in Tamil if a large section of devotees wanted it.

P.K. Sekar Babu told IANS that "These are all choices of devotees and the department will extend Tamil archanai to other temples if a demand comes from those places. The "Kumbabishekham" will be done if 'Agamas' permitted it but we won't put any pressure on anyone. These are to be done without hurting the sentiments of a large number of devotees and the government will take the opinion of the devotees across the state and move ahead if necessary."