As many as 12 women entered the Shanaishwar temple at Solashi in Koregaon taluka of Satara district. This was an organised protest against the ban of women in the main inner sanctums of temples, that has been around for centuries. This protest comes only a few weeks after a lone woman quietly slipped past the security barricade at Shani Shingnapur, also in Maharashtra. The outrage of it all was that the priests did a whole purifying ritual just because the woman entered the shrine.
In the case of the 12 women, they too did something similar. The women took down the board outside the shrine prohibiting the women and entered the inner sanctum to pray. “The act of entering the temple was planned so that we could send a message to shrines where women are not allowed to enter,” said lawyer and activist Varsha Deshpande, who led the women.
“It was a Satyagraha. They have placed a board asking women not to enter the temple. We went there today and removed the board, then entered the temple and worshipped the idol. It is not unconstitutional,” she said.
Shanaishwar Devasthan Trust priests immediately “purified” the temple using ‘gomutra’ (cow urine), which angered the women activists who decided to file a complaint against the trust for violating the constitutional rights of citizens.
Nandgiri Maharaj, chief priest of temple, who is popular in southern Maharashtra, objected to the act and said that the Hindu religion has rules barring women from entering the Shani temple. Deshpande and Nandgiri Maharaj engaged in a heated debate after the women entered, during which the latter challenged the women to enter shrines of other religious institutions.
“We told him we were entering the temple because we are Hindu. Religion is a personal matter and should not be exhibited. We removed the board as it is derogatory to women. If women of other religions want to do the same thing, they are free to do so,” Deshpande said.
They aren’t the only women to protest. For the last five years, activists in Kolhapur have been demanding that women be allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum of Kolhapur’s famous Mahalaxmi temple.
