BHUBANESWAR: Two days after coming up with a ‘decent attire’ norm, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Thursday wrote to the servitor nijogs of Srimandir and Hotel and Restaurant Association of Puri to create awareness among visitors about its advisory for devotees on wearing decent clothes while visiting the 12th century shrine.
Although the temple administration has not prescribed any particular dress code, it has called for pant-shirts, kurta-pyjama, dhoti for men and sarees, salwar kameez for women devotees. In the niti sub-committee meeting of the SJTA, it was decided to implement a decent attire norm for devotees coming to the temple from January 1. Till then, an awareness drive will be conducted on the issue among devotees.
Temple chief administrator Ranjan Das in his letter to the servitors and hotels and restaurants’ owners in the pilgrim city, said people coming to the temple in shorts, transparent and revealing clothes, ragged/torn jeans and other inappropriate costumes should be asked to discontinue wearing such clothes if they plan to visit the temple.
“Although no particular dresses have been prescribed by the temple administration, we leave it to the devotees to wear decent and appropriate dresses like pant, shirt, chudidar-pyjama and dhoti etc., in case of men and saree, salwar kameez etc., in case of women,” he wrote.
As devotees reside in hotels, lodges and guest houses which are the originating points before coming to the temple, the SJTA chief asked owners of the facilities to educate their staff, tourist guides and Yatri Pandas about the dress advisory. They would then spread awareness among the visitors. Similarly, Das asked the temple servitors to tell devotees about the new rule.
“These awareness campaigns will continue till the end of this year and from January 1, the temple administration will take stringent measures at all the four gates of Srimandir to ensure implementation of the dress advisory in letter and spirit,” Das wrote.
It may be noted that with several shrines across the country having a dress code for devotees, Jagannath culture scholars, researchers and the priests had been demanding the introduction of the same in the Puri temple.