2. Attukal Temple is a renowned temple in Kerala where Women are worshipped. The temple hosts Attukal Pongala festival, in which over a million women participate.Only women are allowed to participate in the Pongala ritual. The festival has figured in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the single largest gathering of women for a religious activity.
3. Chakkulathukavu Temple is another temple in Kerala dedicated to the Bhagavathi, and follows a peculiar annual ritual called ‘Naari Puja’. On the first Friday of Dhanu (December), the male priests wash the feet of female devotees who have fasted for 10 days. This system takes root in the belief that female devotees visiting on this particular day are the incarnation of Chakkulathu Amma (goddess).
4. In Assam, Kamru Kamchhaya Mandir is also such temple where only women is allowed to enter the premises during the time of monthly period. It is the temple of Bhagavati Maa, when Uma or Maa Sati waist was fell down here after having cut by Lord Vishnu Sudershan Chakra. It is also an important Peeth of Bhagvati Maa. Devipuram Kamakhya Peetham with the female priest and devotees.
5. One such temple is in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. During the time of special period day, only women devotee is allowed there to enter the Mandir. Even, Pujari of the Mandir is not allowed to enter the premises.
6. The temple of the Bhagwathi in Chengannur (Kerala) and the temple of Kamakhya Devi (Assam) where the Goddess too was believed to menstruate and followed similar rituals of menstrual seclusion, closing the temple for 3 days and then celebrating the end of her menstruation. In both these temples, the menstrual cloth is considered highly auspicious and is distributed among devotees.
7. One such temple of Bhagavati Maa is Kanya Kumari in Kerala.There also women devotee is allowed to enter. Male entry is prohibited there. This is a famous temple of Kanya Kumari, where Kanya Ma Bhagawati Durga is worshiped by women only.
8. Santoshi Maa Varat is observed by only women or unmarried girls. I did not see any male on fast or on the Varat of Santoshi Maa. Sour fruits or prickle eating on that day is also prohibited. Though, male enters the Santoshi Maa temple for worshiping but hardly anyone is on Varat of Santoshi Maa.
Comments: 22
Bunkum.
" the energy in the Universe that was unleashed by the Big Bang was later defined and structured into various forms of God and its shape, color, size and materials by ancient Rishis …"
Ha Ha Ha.
I am a physicist.
This type of misbelieve is not expected from Mayank Gandhi. If it is due to cosmetics then do you think no man use cosmetics now-a-days. What a rubbish ligic. Dont give reference to just some books.
Read it and think in scientific way.
I have visited Kanyakumari but had not experienced any discrimination and I am male.Where do u find mention of Santoshi Mata?in movies?
And if veda's were sufficient to guide Hinduism properly then why we needed 'Geeta'. We can not believe blindly on all ancient thinkings and logics. They did not have science to explain miracles of nature so they assumed some superpower named'god' behind every ununderstandable happening. So plaese please dont misguide people of 21st century.
A little differ to ur view Mayank, whilst i am all for people to know the reason, but where has the real reason been given for women not wanting to enter ? When god who made us did not differentiate between the two sexes, why should there be any differentiation man made even if it is being followed from 1000's of years… The restrictions on women are far higher to men and that's not acceptable to me.
As you may expect, this one is a difficult one to fully process and digest. 2 things come to mind:
1. Empirically, I had no issues getting into Brahma Mandir at Pushkar. No one was stopping any other married men either when I visited
2. Even if the energy argument is true, I believe that temples are not just spiritual centres but also Socio cultural centres. So while the energy balance maybe upset thereby leading to some loss of "spiritual value", I believe that entry of women and thr message it sends will create more than commensurate "Socio cultural value", especially in a society like ours, at this time, in this period of imbalance and depravity.
This is my humble opinion.
Agree
Jai Brahma! I had been to the brahma temple in Pushkar a few years ago. Being what I am, I did not go in but two of my "married" friends went in happily along with hundreds of others. I do not know if the hundreds of others were unmarried. Did not look like it. One of the more regressive thought that I have come across in this article. The obsession with this so called ancient indian science is going to hit this country so badly one day………. and the educated are giving it their full support it would seem. However the comment section is encouraging in it rejection of the outdated and obsolete thought process.
The primary argument is whether to debate god/religion as a science or an art or both. Once that is concluded, all of you can have common ground to express wisely else it is a circus. TPK
spirtual truths are difficult to understand specially where happiness is linked to materialistic mentality.Every thing can't be brushed under carpet as myth.Truths propounded by Rishies have scientific reasons behind these.
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Hundred percent disagree. Logic does not seems logic but seems as illogical.
Point of Rajan about socio-cultural values is to be noted.
Utterly and completely disappointed with Mayank. Our basis of morality must be based on evidence and logical thought – not based on superstition. There is just no scientific basis to prove existence of gods – let alone some random nonsense like planets affecting organs and energies of some obscure types. It is precisely this kind of illogical and groundless notion which justified practices like sati in the yesteryears.
Absolute and utterly shameful – particularly coming from someone who you would have usually held in high esteem.
We are discussing about entering the sanctum sanctorum. So, I am not saying that they should not enter temples, hence the socio cultural aspect would be maintained. I had clearly stated that the information regarding the temples where men were banned was gleaned from the internet and could be incorrect.
Our superficial knowledge about the interplay of energies could destroy the profound collection of certain kind of energies that has accumulated from centuries. If one wants to protect sociocultural value, then maybe one should disallow both men and women from going inside the garbhagrih. I worry that we may mess up the process by our ignorance.
Sometimes we judge too harshly when someone departs from the image that one has built. You say that there is no scientific basis to prove God and I say that this is an entirely scientific and profound process. I have written extensively on the same, you might like to read it.
I respect your views, but I think differently
Men and women represent different energies and there are certain temples which do not allow them in the main centre. Everything is not uniform, every person and gender is different and powerful in their own way.
You may be right, I picked up the information from the net to make a point
I am not into religion, and frankly not particularly invested in this debate. I do agree that centuries of social traditions should not be trampled for the sake of opposing all that is ancient. I do not believe that to be happening. Why women would want to enter temples where they are kept out is beyond my comprehension, given that I don't think religions have served women well to begin with. That said, if they want it, I see no particular reason to oppose it either.
What worries me is the lack of faith even while upholding religion. It is ridiculous and completely absurd to imagine the kind of energy soup beind described as though people a hundred years ago or a thousand years ago were clever for no more virtue than the time they were born in or worse, the lack of adequate analysis of claims allowing them to be established as truth. If today, we build temples for reasons as diverse as there being none in an area to celebrating film stars or etc, no reason to believe that people a thousand years ago did it for some scientific energies they had no way of measuring (nor do they today).
If it has proof, it isn't faith. If it is valid in science, it is science. By creating esoteric fantasies to fit religion into science, all it says is that the argument lacks inherent merit to be taken on faith, and the provided argument lacks scientific rigor, leaving it neither here, nor there.
Would be easier to say we have religious spaces for men and women and some are seggregated and it may be useful to have some spaces that are allowed only to a specific gender for whatever social reason, including a comfort zone in a society that is rather horribly repressed about sexuality and interaction between genders. Such an argument could suggest the creation of more women only places of worship as a means of promoting equality (though frankly, I think women and religion is little more than Stockholm Syndrome)
Circus continues..
I do agree with you that there is no need to make this extra ordinary effort by certain section of women to attain equality with men , is equality religious or only religious in nature or does it has any other aspects of cultural/spiritual/historical/feminine vs masculine/earthly or cosmos ethos to it, will the women attain equality in its truest sense by entering places of worship where they are prohibited to enter? If equality means equal rights to the women as men then I suppose by and large, it means women should be given equal amount of freedom to do & perceive all those things that men are allowed, As you have rightly mentioned, there are places where men are not allowed to enter, I suppose if at all we need to attain certain amount of equality in our so called modern society, then the minds & the thought process of people around must change, One of the way it can be achieved is by making women self dependent, Women in our society are always linked with the men around them, this has to change. let them have their identity sans any relationship with men. But this is difficult to achieve since the bringing up & teachings to a girl child in present day scenario does not encourage independant thinking
I have no idea why people argues on such issues which are being followed from years, We are quite confused sometimes we even fight for a reserved seat in a bus "Mahilaon ke liye " or special leaves for the special days on the months end from office but make sure that we should be allowed in the temple to worship on those special days only . When we are given special rights to worship where Men even can't we don't fight for them but if we are prohibited we have to fight. I don't know what is right and what is wrong but I agree to the fact that one should not break rules just to break to show we are Liberal and Buddhijivi . It is my personal view and don't want to hurt anyone's opinion, but I think nothings gonna change even if not put oil on any stone if we have no faith and if we have faith in God and religion we actually not need to , In our Dharma it is clearly said that if we are unable to do any pooja physically Manas Pooja is as much valid and acceptable as done in real . After reading this writeup I am glad its not just me alone on Earth who thinks such arguments are Void when it comes to Beliefs and faith .