Events
& Issues
New Delhi, 24 June 2021
Gender Equality
WOMEN PRIESTS IN
TEMPLES
By DrS.Saraswathi
(Former Director,
ICSSR, New Delhi)
In the midst of our fight against Covid-19
and the fear of third wave in a few weeks haunting our spirit,theDMK government
in Tamil Nadu is going ahead with temple reforms as oneof the most important items on its agenda tobe
executed as fast aspossible. It relatesto appointment of female priests in templesundergovernment control.
True,thepandemic cannot be an excuse for
postponing social reformsor rendering gender equalityandjustice.
The Minister for Hindu Religious and
Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) in TN has announced a few days back that the State would offer
training to women who are interested in becoming priests in temples managed by the Department.
“As all Hindus canbecome priests,women
can also become priests”, stated the minister. The announcement marks that the
DMK government is picking up the thread
again to continue democratisation of temple administration initiatedin the 1970s soon after the DMK first came to power.
The minister has also announced that Hindus
of all castes would be appointed priests in 36,000- odd temples under its
control before the newly elected DMK government completes 100 daysin office.It
is not known whether the urgency is due to the pressure given by devotees or
priests in waiting or by temple management or by the DMK Partyborn for removing
caste inequalities.
Temple worship is not just a religious
practice, but is linked with sect/denomination, caste, and language. With administration
of bigtemples going into the hands of government, Constitution and laws have to
be adhered to and democratisation and secularisation in managing temple affairs
have become policy issues for governments and political parties. Hence, issues
like women gurukal(priest) and archana in Tamil.
In 1971, the HRE Act wasamended in TN to allow
appointment of temple priestsfrom any
caste. The apex court abolished the hereditary priesthoodin temples, but
upheld the authority of the agamas and its rules which laid stress on usage and
denominations in appointment of priests.
As denominations are not castes and people
from different castes may belong to the same sect, an ordinance was passed in 2006 to
specifically remove caste bar in becoming priests. The judge then stated,
quoting from a famous judgement that, “freedom to act and practice in pursuance
of religious beliefs is as much
important as the freedom of believing in a religion”. The test is that
provisions in Part III of the Constitution on Fundamental Rights should not be
violated. The bench did not strike down the ordinance, but ruled that it should
be applied case by case only. Agamas
are not common for all temples.
Agamas represent themanual or guidebook on
which temple rituals are based.They prescribe rules about everything pertaining
to temples including food, dress,
and habits of priests
and the manner of conducting rituals
in the minutest details. Even temple architecture, housingof deities, anduse of space are dealtwith.
It is reported that after an order passed in
2006, 207 men were trained for priesthood in major temples in TN. But, the
programmehad to be shelved soon for lack of jobs for the graduates. Till date, very few have been appointed as
priests and about 15 gone abroad.
The whole controversy in Tamil Nadu is due to
the common notion of associating “priest” with “Brahmin” and “Brahmanism,” Brahmin was
considered andreferred to in caste literature as the “priestly class” although Brahmin was the first to take to
English education and modern jobs. The
term “priest” is used by Hindus forspecialists who conduct rituals athome or in public
places to conduct family samskaras and
ritualson occasions like birth of a baby, wedding,death, etc ., and also for
those engaged in puja and connected rituals in temples. Women rarely cameforward to do
priestlyfunctions. Arya Samaj founded
aschoolin Sakori in Maharashtra in 1932 to
train women for priesthood.
Government of Tamil Nadu seems to be keen on
breaking the tradition of appointing male priests in some big temples
attractinglargecrowds and having vast resources and income and conducting festivals on an extravagant scale.
For, women priests and priests from castes other than Brahmin are not any new
idea in smaller temples in Tamil Nadu. Besides the famous Adi Parasakti Temple
in Melmaruvathur near Chennai which has female priests and allows females to even touch the idols, there are hundreds
of temples of “little tradition” where
women priests are common. In many
temples, even hereditary system of women
priests is in force.There are a number of temples of “village gods” in southern
India with mostly women priests.
The
Supreme Court held in a case from
Andhra Pradesh that performance of rituals was part of religion, but the
performer was not and ruled that any person qualified to function as priest can
be appointed. Priestly functions are physicallyarduous with stringent regulations and involve late night
and very early morning duties. Specialsafetyarrangements are required for female
priests.
Hindu tradition even in most conservative
places is not as strongly against female priesthood as
the Roman Catholic Church. Holy books of Hindus do not prohibitwomen
from becoming religious leaders.But, the
teaching of the Catholic Church on ordination permits only a Catholic male to receive valid ordination.
In 1976, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued the Declaration on the Question of the
Admission of Women to the Ministerial
Priesthood which taught that for
doctrinal, theological, and historical reasons, the Church “does not consider itself authorized to admit women
to priestly ordination.” In 1994 Pope John Paul II confirmed that Church could not
confer priestly ordination on women.Women priests and bishops who attempt to ordain them could be
excommunicated according to a decree from Vatican in 2008.This position was reversed by a German bishop in 2017.
There are schools to train women priests in
many States in India. Pune is in the forefront where two schools were started
several years back totrain women for priesthood.
Temple trusts are another place inaccessible
to women. Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu
have passed laws mandating reservation of seats for women in the Board
of trustees.Andhra Pradesh provides 50% reservation for women in temple trusts
and committees. Some famous temples like Puri Jagannath, Vaishno Devi shrine,
and Siddhi Vinayak temple have women members as trustees.
Today, proper maintenance of places ofworshipseems
to be far more important than appointment of women priests. UNESCOonce
described that temples in TN are in “decay”.
Misappropriation of temple property, lack of proper auditing, idol
theft, and dilapidated condition of several temples need urgent action and not appointment
of women priests. Assessment of temple
properties and preservation of templerecords using digitised technology must be undertaken immediately.
In short, state control of religious
institutions may betterbe limited to material issues leaving spiritual and
ritual matters to the decision of religious leaders and devotees inconsonance
with temple rules and traditions.--- INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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