The Puttige seer’s rights to conduct the puja are being disputed by the seers of other mutts on account of his recent visits to the US and Europe in violation of a tradition that bars heads of mutts from crossing the seven seas. While priests who have traveled abroad can participate in what is called the festival of Paryaya at the temple, they cannot offer pujas, since they have violated the traditional ban on priests crossing the seas.

The Pejawar pontiff’s hunger strike began even as a local Udupi court refused to prevent the Puttige pontiff from conducting pujas this year.

As president of the World Council of Religions for Peace, Sugunendra Teertha had recently held meetings with US President George W Bush and traveled to strife torn areas like Chechnya. He has been insistent that his mutt be allowed to carry out the pujas and has on occasions also insisted that he himself be allowed to do them. However, a junior seer of the Pejawar mutt, who traveled abroad, had been barred from conducting the pujas at the Udupi temple.

Sugunendra Teertha says he traveled abroad to spread the principles of Hinduism and not for any personal benefit. “If the earth is holy, isn’t foreign soil the same?” asks the seer. The other religious heads are opposed to him due to fears that religious heads who go abroad tend to break their religious practices, he has stated.

The influential Vishvesha Teertha has been leading the opposition to the Puttige seer’s claim to perform pujas, while the latter has questioned the Pejawar seer’s association with politics and the Sangh Parivar.