An order relaxing the dress code for woman devotees at Kerala’s famous Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the world’s richest Hindu shrine, ran into rough weather on Wednesday with a large number of devotees and several Hindu organisations raising stiff protests with the support of members of the shrine’s administrative committee and blocking women who arrived in the newly allowed dress.
Following the protests, the District Judge, who is also chairman of the administrative committee, asked the temple’s executive officer, who had issued the order, to withdraw it and maintain status quo but he responded to the instruction in the negative. The temple premises on Wednesday morning witnessed slogan-shouting and road-blocking by activists of Hindu organisations who complained that discussions had not been held before issuing the order.
Executive officer KN Satheesh had on Tuesday issued the order allowing women to enter the temple wearing Churidar-Kurtas in response to a court case related to the issue. The traditionally permitted dresses for women at the temple are Saree, skirt-blouse and Dhoti-top. Churidars and pants are allowed but women, before entering the temple, should cover it with Dhoti. Satheesh’s order removed the clause about covering Churidar with Dhoti.
Satheesh had issued the order following an instruction from the High Court to take appropriate decision on dress code relaxation. The court had issued the instruction while considering a petition filed by Riya Raji, a woman lawyer based in Thiruvananthapuram. Satheesh’s order began to be implemented at 7.00 AM Wednesday and some women did offer worship wearing the newly permitted dress before the protests erupted.
Acting upon complaints from the protesting devotees and Hindu outfit activists, District Judge K Haripal wrote a letter to the executive officer instructing him to withdraw the order and maintain status quo. But Satheesh reportedly replied in the negative saying that the High Court alone could take a decision in the new circumstance. In his reply to the administrative committee, he said that the High Court had already been informed of the decision.
The centuries-old Sree Padmanabha Swamy shrine had shot to international fame in 2011 after it was revealed that the cellars in the temple complex were holding treasures worth over Rs 100,000 crore in the form of gold, precious stones, rare coins, etc. This finding had led to several controversies necessitating the intervention of the Supreme Court.
Three women devotees from outside Kerala were the first to enter the temple in newly permitted dress through one of its four gates. Though they had brought Dhotis with them to cover their Churidars as per tradition, the temple guards told them this was not necessary. “I don’t have any problem with any of the tradition being followed here. Still, the new system seems to be all right,” said one of them.
As protesters blocked more women from entering the shrine in Churidar-Kurta through the western gate, some women entered the shrine through another gate. “I think this is a good decision. The normal dress of most young women in today’s Kerala is Churidar-Kurta,” said a devotee, Uma Nair.
According to a member of the temple administrative committee, “The executive officer should have got the permission of the Tantri (traditional chief priest of the temple), the committee and other stakeholders like the devotees’ organizations before issuing such an order. He has not done that. The District Judge has assured us that the order would not be taken forward.”
State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan said decisions related to temple affairs were not to be taken by outside authorities. “Customs and rituals in a temple are its internal matters. Instead of taking decision that may lead to tension and conflict, measures should be adopted to solve problems amicably. The problem here is that there has been no such effort,” he said in Kochi.