Two self-proclaimed Shankaracharyas have stepped forward to oppose the official Shankaracharyas’ decision to stay away from the January 22 consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya over alleged violations of scriptural norms.

The development comes days after some of the official Shankaracharyas had accused the temple trust of trying to “divide Hindus” in its effort to hit back at them for opposing the Narendra Modi government’s showpiece event.

Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati and Swami Adhokshjanand Devteerth, who claim they are the Shankaracharyas of Jyotirmath and Puri, respectively, have said that whatever is done in the name of Lord Ram becomes auspicious and the event should therefore not be opposed.

“These people (the four Shankaracharyas) have some personal problem with Modi and are free to settle scores with him, but they shouldn’t oppose Lord Ram,” Adhokshjanand told The Telegraph from Puri.

Adhokshjanand has since 1996 been claiming to be the real Shankaracharya of Gowardhanpeeth, Puri. He has established seats of his own at many places in the country with donations from his followers.

However, the temple trust had invited Nishchalanand Saraswati, the official Puri Shankaracharya since 1992, to the consecration. Nishchalanand declined it.

Asked why he was not invited, Adhokshjanand said: “This question is wrong. The management is making a list of the guests… I may visit the temple after January 22.”

Vasudevanand, who has established his parallel seat in Jyotirmath, Uttarakhand, is himself a member of the temple trust in Ayodhya. However, Swami Avimukteshwaranand, the official Shankaracharya, received an invite to the January 22 event, which he has declined.

“I’ll attend the function by virtue of being a member of the trust. It is a great occasion and we should all be happy about it. We are happy that the Prime Minister is going to inaugurate the temple,” he told his followers in Chamoli two days ago.

Some religious experts said Nishchalanand was already Shankaracharya of Gowardhanpeeth when some members of then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao’s government began pampering Adhokshjanand as head of the same seat.

The Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and Yogi Adityanath governments in Uttar Pradesh earmarked equal space for their camps in the Kumbh Mela and Magh Mela in Allahabad. However, the footfall in Nishchalanand’s camps has always been heavier.

Besides, Vasudevanand lost cases in the lower and higher courts and was directed in 2015 to stop calling himself a Shankaracharya or even a sadhu.

“Vasudevanand aka Somnath Dwivedi, a government school teacher, resigned in November 1989 and declared himself the Shankaracharya of Jyotirpeeth on the basis of an unsubstantiated will of (previous Shankaracharya) Vishnudevanand,” a religious expert said on the condition of anonymity.

As the then Shankaracharya took legal action, Vasudevanand told the court in 1998 that he had taken sanyas in 1983. But it was proved that he had been accepting his government salary till two months before he declared himself the Shankaracharya.

The court ruled that a sanyasi was not allowed to accept any salary and declared him a fake sadhu who should stop calling himself Shankaracharya or using the throne, dandi and umbrella assigned to a Shankaracharya traditionally.