LUCKNOW, INDIA, December 6, 2002: Over 50 akharas (monastic orders) and ashrams in Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal will soon prepare themselves for a new role when hundreds of thousands of Naga Sadhus associated with them would take up the security of temples and religious shrines in the country. “The Naga sadhus, numbering over 500,000 in the country, will not sit idle if temples continue to be targeted by non-believers,” said Mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara. “The Naga sect, founded by Shankaracharya to protect the sadhus and saints in the event of attacks, had virtually drifted away from their defined role after the supremacy of Sanatana Dharma was established in the country,” said a member of Sriram Hastakhchar Abhiyan Samiti. When the threat to temples and other religious shrines abated, the Naga sadhus assumed different roles.
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