By Radha Venkatesan, IANS
Guruvayur (Kerala) : Outside the famous Sri Krishna shrine in this south Indian town, the notice “strictly” announces that only women dressed in traditional saris will be allowed in. Inside, however, are many women dressed in colourful salwar suits waiting in queue to have a glimpse of the deity – without any temple staff rushing in to evict them.
With the temple administration recently relaxing its dress code for women, devotees have finally attained sartorial freedom at the Guruvayur shrine. But men have to wait longer yet for their slice of freedom; they have to wear the traditional dhotis and remove their shirt to offer prayers.
“This Independence Day, I feel we have got freedom from the shackles of the six-metre long sari as well,” smiles Rema Ramasubramaniam as she walks out of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, clad in a bright green salwar suit.
A Hindi teacher from Ernakulam in Kerala, Rema comes frequently on a pilgrimage to Guruvayur. “I come here almost once every month. And most times, I would be worried about my sari staying in place. For women with children, this is a real blessing.”
It may look good, but saris are not exactly convenient, chips in Radha, a devotee from Mumbai.
“I did not know that the dress code had been relaxed. So I came in a traditional pattu (silk) sari yesterday. My one-year-old daughter virtually pulled it apart. Today I got wiser,” she beams, pointing to her more practical dress.
Even at the traditional ‘choroottu’ ceremony, the first feeding of solid food to infants at the temple precincts, most young mothers have chosen to come clad in silk salwar suits, and not saris.
Till a fortnight ago, women devotees were forced out of the temple if they wore any dress other than the six-metre sari and blouse. Women devotees, particularly those from northern India, would have to rush to the nearby shops to pick up a sari to enter the temple.
While women are enjoying their liberty, tradition-bound temple staffers are not too happy with the newfound sartorial freedom.
“This will make men also fight for relaxation of the dress code. The purity of the temple should not be eroded in any manner. The (state communist) government should not be allowed to interfere and change the tradition of the temple,” says a staffer, who has been with the temple for over 10 years.
Indeed, even in the pre-Independence years, the temple’s strict adherence to tradition and rituals had triggered a nationwide debate and protest. Called the Guruvayur Satyagraha, a group of Gandhians in 1934 led a struggle for throwing open the temple for worship to all the Hindus without any caste discrimination. It was this movement that laid the foundations for the communist movement in Kerala.
Sixty years after Independence, the winds of change are finally blowing through the temple. The administration has not just relaxed dress code for women. It has also apologised to Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi’s son for conducting a purification ritual following his visit – Ravi is married to a Christian and, according to temple board rules, non Hindus are not allowed.
Unfortunately, the “dress” freedom has not been extended to all temples in Guruvayur. A few kilometres away, at the Mahadevaswamy temple at Mamiyur, which is a must-see for all the pilgrims to the Sri Krishna temple, women devotees in salwar suits are still kept out of the main precincts.
“When they allow these at the Sri Krishna temple, why not here?’ asks Reshmi from Bangalore, who waits outside without being able to offer worship at the Siva temple, simply because she is not dressed in a sari.