Sugin G. Nair, a 44-year-old inside designer, chants a hymn as he walks down the granite-laid path encircling the Chuttambalam, or outer enclosure, of the Siva temple in Ernakulam. The air is chilly and aromatic with the scent of incense.
Nair is wearing a blue dhoti. His shirt, held on his proper arm, gently flutters within the breeze that wafts in from the backwaters, a community of brackish lagoons and canals mendacity parallel to the Arabian Sea in Kerala.
A couple of worshippers, a few of them holding flowers and different choices, comply with the chief priest as he carries the idol, adorned with garlands, across the temple in a procession. This day by day temple ritual is known as Seeveli. Nair stands in prayer because the procession ends earlier than the sanctum sanctorum. He then steps exterior the temple and places on his shirt.
“I gained’t break the centuries-old follow of coming into temples with out higher physique clothes even when the temple authorities allow me to put on a shirt. It’s my selection to not put on a shirt whereas I submit myself earlier than a deity,” he says.
In 2017, the Kerala authorities determined to allow non-Brahmin monks to carry out temple rites. Immediately, one other marketing campaign is ongoing within the State. This time, it’s about males’s put on in temples.
It started a number of weeks in the past when Swami Sathchidananda, the non secular head of Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham Belief, the organisation main the non secular actions of the Ezhavas, who’re categorized as an Different Backward Class, mentioned that males needs to be allowed to enter Hindu temples carrying shirts.
His remarks sparked an issue. Some monks and neighborhood leaders obtained upset, saying temple practices needs to be left untouched. The decision additionally uncovered the deep divide among the many main Hindu communities, with the overall secretary of the Nair Service Society criticising the suggestion. Nonetheless, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan supported the decision and lauded the marketing campaign. He mentioned it imbibed the spirit of social reformation led by Sree Narayana Guru, the twentieth century seer and social reformer.
Pushing for reform
Swami Sathchidananda argues that there are a lot of “undesirable” temple practices that live on even at present. “That is one follow which ought to have lengthy been deserted,” he says. “Temple rituals and customs must be reformed to be in tune with the altering instances. The argument in favour of eradicating the shirt was that the divine radiance of temples can be diminished if males wore garments on the higher a part of their physique. Lots of of devotees who attain the hill shrine of Sabarimala and different temples have been carrying garments on the higher a part of their physique,” he factors out.
Swami Sathchidananda provides that the follow of not carrying a shirt can also be “unhygienic”. “Pores and skin illnesses might be transmitted by way of contact,” he says. “The follow of permitting folks to hire dhotis and put on them over trousers and salwar in some temples can also be abominable.”
The seer contends that the follow of bare-chested males coming into temples was launched to forestall folks from ‘decrease castes’ from coming into temples at a time when solely ‘higher castes’ have been permitted to enter temples.
“Asking devotees to take away their shirts was the simplest method of figuring out who was carrying a poonal (the sacred thread worn by Brahmins throughout the physique) and stop the decrease castes from coming into temples,” he argues.
The Jagannatha temple in Thalassery, within the northern district of Kannur, has a particular place within the historical past of the Sree Narayana motion in Kerala, because the idol was consecrated by Sree Narayana Guru himself. Designed to resemble the Puri Jagannatha temple in Puri, Odisha, it was the primary place the place devotees from all castes have been allowed to worship.
Okay. Sathyan, the president of Jnanodaya Yogam, the managing committee of the Jagannath temple, had tried to implement the committee’s determination to allow males to put on shirts contained in the temple two years in the past. This try failed.
“The choice needed to be shelved,” he remembers. “Some have been apprehensive that some sections of society would resist this. We didn’t need the temple premises to develop into a battlefield. So, we determined to maintain the choice in abeyance.”
Sathyan says solely a “mature society” can settle for such social adjustments. He says nobody prevents absolutely clothed devotees, who’re largely from the southern districts, from coming into the Jagannatha temple. “We hope that this follow will collect steam following Swami Satchidananda’s name,” says Sathyan, who had been heading the temple administration panel for 3 years.
A mark of respect, a matter of religion
Nonetheless, some historians and temple monks refuse to purchase the argument that the follow of males eradicating shirts was began with the purpose of conserving non-Brahmins out of temples.
Historian Manu S. Pillai says it was a standard follow in Kerala society to take off the thorthu (the skinny lengthy conventional bathtub towel that’s extensively utilized in Kerala) from one’s shoulder and tie it across the waist as a mark of respect to elders, landlords, and others who have been ‘superior’ on the social ladder. “It was a method of displaying respect. A youthful individual would by no means put on a melmundu (higher garment) or thorthu in entrance of a household elder. Equally, a peasant would by no means maintain the thorthu on his shoulders whereas standing earlier than a landlord,” he says.
Temple monks, Brahmins, and even kings took off their higher clothes inside temples as a gesture of obeisance, Pillai says. This follow stems from the assumption that god is superior to all people. Eradicating higher physique clothes is an act of obeisance to the idol, he explains. “The erstwhile Kings of Travancore and Kochi by no means wore something above their waist, as will be seen from their images and portraits,” he observes.
He’s agency that the follow has nothing to do with figuring out Brahmins who put on the sacred thread. “Most individuals belonging to the so-called higher caste, together with these employed in temples, didn’t put on the sacred thread. So, that can’t be the rationale for asking males to take away higher physique clothes to enter temples,” he causes.
Additionally learn | Swami Sachidananda’s name on ending shirt removing not a brand new stance: Vellappally
N. Radhakrishnan Potti, the overall secretary of the Akhila Kerala Thanthri Mandalam, the neighborhood organisation of Kerala Brahmin monks, defends the follow. He says it has been in vogue for hundreds of years in all the key temples of the State. “It’s believed that male devotees take up the radiance of the idol by way of their hearts and girls by way of their foreheads. It’s a matter of religion for temple worshippers and can’t be tampered with,” he says.
Potti explains how males in Kerala used to cowl their torso utilizing an uthareeyam, a bit of skinny material draped over the physique, which they might take away whereas paying obeisance to gurus and gods. “Such customs could have trickled into temples over time. It’s distinctive to Kerala,” he says.
Potti cites Kshethracharangal, a ebook on temple rituals and practices written by Kanippayyur Sankaran Namboodiripad, which lists out practices that males should keep away from once they go to temples. “It mentions smearing your hair with ghee and oil and carrying garments on the higher a part of your physique, in addition to headgear,” he says.
Potti can also be clear that the duty of initiating reforms and altering practices needs to be left to senior monks. “It’s not a problem to be deliberated by seers and politicians,” he asserts.
Altering with the instances
The gown code adopted within the temples of Kerala is just not uniform. Ladies have been banned from carrying salwars to the Guruvayur temple within the city of Guruvayur; they might solely put on sarees. This was till 2013, when the authorities modified the gown code to permit salwars too. They mentioned that this had been a long-pending demand, particularly from ladies who got here to the temple from north India, and they also lastly agreed to it.
Guests exterior the premises of the Guruvayoor temple premises. Picture: Particular Association
Although no gown code has been prescribed for devotees in many of the temples ruled by the Travancore Devaswom Board, males are mandated to take away their higher physique clothes to enter main temples, specifically the Karikkakom temple in Thiruvananthapuram and the Ettumanoor temple in Kottayam.
On the Sree Padmanabha temple in Thiruvananthapuram, males are mandated to put on a dhoti and girls are anticipated to put on a sari or the mundu-set. Males who come to the temple in trousers are allowed to hire a dhoti, whereas ladies in salwar are allowed to hire a saree, each to be worn over their garments, from the temple premises earlier than coming into the temple.
Vedanta scholar Swami Chidananda Puri has lengthy been campaigning for such restrictions to be lifted. Talking of how ladies’s apparel modified over centuries, he says, “Ladies in Kerala by no means wore garments on the higher a part of their physique. Then, Neriyathu (an higher garment) and Mulakacha (material worn across the chest) grew to become their apparel. Later, blouses have been accepted.”
By way of this level, Puri underscores how solely these religions and practices which have modified with time, to maintain consistent with societal adjustments, have thrived. “The gown code of devotees must be reformed. The insistence that one ought to enter temples bare-chested is deterring younger males from going to temples. The Marga Darshak Mandal (a platform of Hindu seers) held final 12 months at Thrissur had known as for modifying the gown code of males. Now, many temple authorities are making adjustments on this route,” he says.
Lekshmy Rajeev, writer and a researcher on temple tantra, says ladies needed to combat for his or her proper to cowl their breasts in Kerala, whereas males by no means protested about carrying clothes. “I consider this follow of not carrying enough clothes advanced right into a ritual over time,” she says.
Rajeev additionally says not all males could really feel comfy displaying their torsos. “Males are pressured to show their our bodies publicly, which may make them really feel uncomfortable and uneasy,” she says.
Arayakkandi Santhosh, the Devaswom Secretary of Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, a social service organisation representing the Ezhavas, says the Yogam has all the time stood for reformative practices. “The managing committees of some temples have not too long ago resolved to abolish the follow and replace the gown code. Temple committees follow customary practices to keep away from conflicts. Nonetheless, males are free to put on shirts on the newly consecrated Guru temples,” he says.
The controversies surrounding the gown code have solely helped Mukkoli Raveendran, a social activist and a follower of Sree Narayana Guru, strengthen his resolve about temple put on. “I’ll supply my prayers at a temple solely when I’m allowed to enter carrying a shirt. It has been 5 years since I prayed at a temple as a mark of protest towards the gown code,” says Raveendran, who can also be a member of the executive committee of the Jagannath temple. He additionally scoffs because the argument that shirts stop the “transmission of the radiance of the idols to the devotees”.
Sajesh Kumar Manalel, the State vp of the youth motion of the Yogam, echoes his sentiment. “Although I’ve been to the Sree Krishna Temple at Guruvayur a number of instances, I stayed exterior and supplied my prayers. I hope that sooner or later all of the temples of the State will welcome males with higher clothes,” he says.
sudhi.ks@thehindu.co.in
Revealed – January 11, 2025 03:43 am IST
