In what came as a boost to the ongoing “Happy-to-Bleed” campaign on the social media, a still-to-be identified woman from Pune broke a five-century-old taboo, climbed up to “chauthara” (the plinth or a small quadrangle) housing the idol of lord Shani at the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district of western Maharashtra and offered prayers to the presiding deity.
The woman’s act of walking up to the open-air sanctum sanctorum and offering prayers to lord Shani -- a five-and-a-half-feet high black rock with a “trishul” (trident) placed alongside and a Nandi (bull) installed on the southern side of the quadrangle symbolising the presiding deity – has sparked off a major controversy in the state.
Though the incident took place at around 3.30 pm on Saturday in the presence of scores of devotees visiting the temple, the temple management came to know of the woman’s act on late on Saturday, when it viewed the CCTC footage of woman walking up to the open-air plinth housing lord Shani and offered prayers to the presiding deity.
Irked by the incident, the temple management sacked seven security personnel and “purified” the idol by performing an “abhisheka” with milk on Sunday.
The incident took a political colour on Saturday night itself, with the local Gramsabha holding a meeting to condemn the incident and deciding to observe a day-long in the pilgrim village of Shani Shingnapur on Sunday. The Gramsabha directed the temple management to "purify" the idol by performing an “abishekha” and sack the security men “whose laxity led to the woman walking up to the plinth of the idol and offer prayers to the deity”.
The CCTV footage reveals that the incident happened in the full view of the pilgrims waiting in queue for darshan and that the security personnel or the temple staff made no attempt no to stop the woman from walking up to the small quadrangle housing lord Shani’s idol.
At the Shani Shingnapur temple, there has long been a ban on women going up to the plinth of the idol installed in the middle of the temple.
The controversy should be seen in the context of a continued practice in several temples across the country where women are not allowed to go near the sanctum sanctorum of temples across the country during their menstruation period and a fierce debate unleashed by the sexist remarks made by the head of the famous Sabarimala temple in Kerala in response to a campaign named “Happy-to-Bleed” campaign launched on social media by a college girl Nikita Azad.
The incident comes on the heels of a campaign launched on social media by a college girl Nikita Azad, who wrote an open letter addressed to Sabrimala temple chief Prayar Gopalakrishnan in his “sexist” statement that once ‘purity’ checking machines (that check whether women are menstruating or not) were invented, he would think about letting women enter the temple.
“There will be a day when a machine is invented to scan if it is the 'right time' for a woman to enter the temple. When that machine is invented, we will talk about letting women inside…," Prayar Gopalakrishnan, who took charge of the Ayappa temple in Kerala recently, said.
The letter written by Nikita went viral, after it was published on Youth Ki Awaaz from where it went viral on social media. After the letter elicited appreciation from hundreds of people active on the social media, Nikita launched a ‘Happy To Bleed’ campaign November 21 on social media.
The woman, who offered prayers at the sanctum sanctorum of the Shani Shingnapur temple, has not been identified as yet. Sources said that she is from Pune.
Her action has come in wholesome praise from various quarters, including the woman and social organisations.
Congress MlA and Maharashtra’s former chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s daughter Praniti Shinde said complimented the woman who broke the social taboo at the Shani Shingnapur temple and said: “The woman who broke the tradition at the temple deserved to be felicitated. I would raise the issue in the State Assembly during the winter session of the State legislature (scheduled to begin at Nagpur on December 7),” Praniti said.
Sayaram Bankar, one of the trustees of Shri Shanaishwar Devasthan Shani Shingnapur-Newasa, sought to play down the incident. “This is a 400 to 500 year old tradition. The woman broke it. We are not holding her responsible for what has happened. We respect women, but there are some traditions that need to be respected. The fact remains that the incident has hurt the sentiments of devotees”.
Welcoming the daring act by the woman, Ranjanan Gavande, Ahmednagar district unit president of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (a committee crusading for eradication of blind beliefs) said: “We welcome her daring act. She has broken a taboo and set a new precedent in the temple. The ‘chauthara’ (plinth) should be thrown open for women”.
