Matabari temple at Udaipur is among the fifty-one Pithasthans as per Hindu Mythology and is one of the most revered shrines in the state. However, at present animal sacrifice is going on there. One goat every day and a buffalo on every Amavasya day is being sacrificed at the cost of temple management. In addition to this, many other the so-called devotees also are sacrificing animals at Matabari. This issue needs re-examination and a rational & conscious decision is to be taken whether such practice of animal sacrifice is justified and deserves its continuation or not.

The Almighty God has neither any definite shape or form nor a specific location where He lives. He manifests Himself in all forms of living beings as well as matter. It's not true that he lives only in temples/mosques or churches, but He is omnipresent. A question may arise that what for are these places of worship? The answer lies in the fact that a temple or any other place of worship is supposed to function as a symbol of ideals to which it represents and as a center for refinement of human consciousness and certainly not for promoting bloodshed in any form on any category of living being. A temple must disseminate only noble values in the society. The animal sacrifice at any temple cannot be considered to be a step in promoting moral values or ideals in the society. It is merely a continuation of an age-old practice in the name of religion.

God who is supposed to encompass all virtues in Him and is also the creator of man as well as animals can safely be presumed to always have equal love and affection for all creatures and He certainly won't like that one of His own creations is being sacrificed by His another creation with the ostensible objective of pleasing Him. This is a wrong notion of people having little understanding of science, religion and spirituality.

With the passage of time, socio-economic conditions change and hence need for changes in various customs and practices are also felt. Any dynamic society always keeps on analysing its laws, rules, customs etc and reject those, which don't stand the scrutiny of logic. This is practical. Continued practice of such customs or practices, which fail the test of logic, is defined as fundamentalism. It is unfortunate that even in this new millennium, innocent animals are being killed at Matabari that too in the name of religion.

Actually speaking such a practice has neither the sanction of law nor of religion. As far as law is concerned, it is very much against the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, which has been enacted by the parliament. The act prohibits all types of cruelty against animals, however, as per section 28 of this act, there is exemption to such killings that are required by the religion of any community. As far as Hindu law enacted by parliament is concerned, it does not talk about such evil practices. So it certainly does not have the sanction of law.

As regards sanction of religion is concerned, I don't see any such authentic religious writing where such sacrifices have been allowed, on the contrary, the core of Indian religion and philosophy has been the philosophy of " Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam" (entire earth is one family) and " Atmavat Sarva Bhuteshu" (Find self in all creatures). The religion, which is founded on the pillars of such magnanimous value system, cannot promote such evil practices.

As far as philosophy behind such sacrifice is concerned it was probably intended at sacrificing bad habits of human being i.e. lust, greed, attachment, anger, ego etc which in turn generates peace and prosperity for the society. Unfortunately its main objective has been ignored. Such sacrifices have already been stopped at various shrines in the Country. In some temples, system of symbolic sacrifice of coconut has been started and this can also be introduced in Matabari.

On certain occasions, it has been heard that such sacrifice system is part of the agreement of merger of Tripura with Union of India. However it is not correct. The merger agreement only relates to a commitment by the Govt for maintenance and upkeep of those shrines, which were maintained by the Maharaja. Matabari was also one of such temples maintained by Maharaja before merger of Tripura with the Indian Union. State Govt is already meeting this condition of the agreement.

The practice of animal sacrifice has born out of anthropocentric thinking of human being, which is incompatible with the fundamental principles of Indian Culture. It is a duty for all the right thinking men and women to think deeply over the issue and work towards elimination of such fundamentalist rituals and save innocent lives. If we need peace and order in our society, we must eliminate violence against all types of living beings.