Breaking all traditions, a century old temple in coastal town of Mangalore in Karnataka is ready to accept two widows as the priestess enhancing the process of women empowerment in religious places.
Sri Gokarnanatha Kshetra, a divine temple is going to set a new trend in women’s emancipation as two widows will join as priestess on October 6. The two women, who lost their husbands, have been given four months of training to perform duties of priest. They will assume their duties on Sunday at the temple with a grand traditional reception by the temple committee to perform their duties as priests.
Former Minister and Senior Congress leader B Janardhana Poojary who is behind this great venture told the media that the temple has taken a concise decision to appoint socially outcast women as priestess in this temple. He said, “They will be given traditional ‘chende’ welcome at the temple and will be taken inside the sanctum sanctorum where idol of lord Shiva and Goddess Annapoorneshwari are placed, later they will be given the right to offer pooja to the deities. They will also consecrate the idol of lord Dattatreya on the temple premises later.”
He said, “Unless the nation starts to revere women who are held in high esteem in ancient scriptures and men realise they owe their very existence to their mother, such atrocities will continue. This novel experiment is also an endeavour of the Kshetra to uphold the time tested principle of equality among genders.
According to the pujari, the temple believes in empowering women who have lost their life partners. “Women who have lost their husbands should not be called ‘widows’. They must not be discriminated and kept out of religious rituals. They must be treated as equal to men and shown respect like mothers,” he added. However, he refused to divulge the identities of two woman priests.