Former Congress minister B Janardhana Poojary has a new mission—widows’ rights. In a revolutionary step, the Kudroli Gokarnanatheswara temple, now promoted by him, has appointed two widows as priests. Social reformer Sree Narayana Guru, whom Pujari worships, had established the temple in February 1912 “The widows have been trained by senior priests for the last four months to perform pooja and other programmes. They will get a salary and will be permanent priests at the Gokarnanatheswara temple,” Poojary said.
The women will start their priesthood formally on Sunday, the second day of Navaratri celebrations at the temple. The widows will also install the Lord Dattatreya idol at the temple on that day. In a culture where widows, especially in rural India are treated as outcasts, Pujari has made history by letting them into the sanctum sanctorum of the temple he governs. “No single holy book has barred women from per forming pooja,’’ he says. “Human beings have made every rule against man or woman. It is odd to say that a woman should stay away from religious programmes after losing her husband. Even restrictions on women to stay away from religious programmes for three days in a month during menstruation is baseless.” He added.
Emphasising that Sree Narayana Guru preached equality in society, Poojary said his move will be a new mark of respect towards women. Refusing to reveal details about the new priests, he said there were many women in the queue to become priests. “We selected them on priority, based on the demand,” he said. Poojary has been introducing many reforms at the temple for the last few years. Both the women priests, whose identity will be made public on Sunday, were trained by the chief priest of Gokarnanatha temple, Laxman Shanthi as well as at the birthplace of the guru in Varkala, Kerala. The widows received instruction in ‘Aagama Shastra’ or the science of priesthood. This is not the first time that the former Congress MP has done something radical. Earlier, he had allowed “socially prohibited” widows to pull the silver chariot of the temple deity during the Mangalore Dasara celebrations in 2011 besides getting a set of widows to perform a Chandika Homa—a traditional task of male priests. Poojary has been at the forefront of restoring disadvantaged women their rights in society. Earlier he gave 250 widows coloured sarees, kunkum and bangles, which Hindu women discard after their husband's death. He made around 5000 married women to take the oath that they will not remove the accoutrements of marriage such as mangalasutra, bangles, flowers, kumkum, colourful sarees, rings nor tonsure their heads in case their husband died. Poojary’s wife, Malathi also participated in the programme. On January 1 2013, the former Finance minister had cleaned the feet of a 72 year old Dalit woman, Anasooya Kumari a retired teacher from Sooterpete. She was allowed to participate in the Chadikayaga held inside the temple premises.