In protest of the long-standing custom that male devotees must take off their shirts before entering the shrine, a group of people entered a Lord ayyappa temple here on sunday without doing so. The protesters, who are members of the SNDP Samyuktha Samara Samithi, were seen praying without taking off their clothes while standing in a line in front of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB)-run shrine in Perunadu.
Since neither the police nor the temple administration raised any objections, the protest proceeded without any problems. Later, the demonstrators called for the custom of asking male devotees to take off their upper clothing to be discontinued permanently.
"There was no violence throughout the protest. Although devotees had historically done so, the temple administration had previously stated that they had no problem with anyone entering the shrine without taking off their clothes," a policeman stated.
The demonstration happened months after a well-known monk demanded that the custom be outlawed in all of the state's temples. Last year, Swami Satchidananda, the leader of the well-known Sivagiri Mutt, which was established by social reformer sree Narayana Guru, called for the practice to be abolished and called it a societal scourge.
According to him, the custom of taking off the upper clothing was first instituted to confirm whether males were wearing the "poonool"—the Brahmins' sacred thread.
The numerically powerful ezhava community is represented by the sree Narayana dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam.
Since neither the police nor the temple administration raised any objections, the protest proceeded without any problems. Later, the demonstrators called for the custom of asking male devotees to take off their upper clothing to be discontinued permanently.
"There was no violence throughout the protest. Although devotees had historically done so, the temple administration had previously stated that they had no problem with anyone entering the shrine without taking off their clothes," a policeman stated.
The demonstration happened months after a well-known monk demanded that the custom be outlawed in all of the state's temples. Last year, Swami Satchidananda, the leader of the well-known Sivagiri Mutt, which was established by social reformer sree Narayana Guru, called for the practice to be abolished and called it a societal scourge.
According to him, the custom of taking off the upper clothing was first instituted to confirm whether males were wearing the "poonool"—the Brahmins' sacred thread.
The numerically powerful ezhava community is represented by the sree Narayana dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam.
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