New Delhi: The miniskirt of Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif raised a storm at Khwaja Moinunddin Chisti's dargah in Ajmer earlier this year. Now, "indecent women's attire" has made the Tirupati temple authorities sit up and take notice.
The temple authorities are reportedly working on an "advisory on dress code" which will make it mandatory for women to wear saris, or other traditional Indian attire, while entering the home of Lord Balaji.
The move was initiated following a complaint by a devotee, who said he was perturbed by women worshippers wearing what he considered immodest clothes.
Incensed over this issue, the devotee from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh even staged a protest and demanded that women should be banned from entering the temple in "indecent" clothes.
The temple authorities confirmed they were contemplating some guidelines to help women look "adequately pious".
"We will take up the issue at the next board meeting this month," said Ramapulla Reddy, spokesman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), told the DNA newspaper on Sunday.
TTD’s executive officer G Balaramaiah also said that the issue was being looked into.
"It’s customary for women to wear saris and men to wear dhotis, but many wear whatever they like," TTD spokesman Reddy said.
TTD’s male employees have to wear dhotis and white T-shirts and women work in saris.
The move of the temple authorities have the support of many devotees, who seem in favour of sartorial curbs. "The Tirupati shrine is not a restaurant where you can wear anything you fancy," said a Bangalore resident and a staunch follower of Lord Balaji.
Women activists, however, say the champions of dress code in temples should also adopt a dress code for men in Kerala temples.
"They should first ban men from entering some temples in Kerala without shirts before imposing a dress code at other temples,” Madhu SM, a Bangalorean, said.
"Temples are places to offer prayers and to find peace of mind. Devotees should come to visit God and not look at women,” she said.
Other temple administrators, too, do not endorse the introduction of a dress code. "People know what to wear when visiting a temple,” Hanumant B Jagtap, chief executive officer of Siddhivinayak Temple, told the newspaper. "At the most, they can be advised not to wear Western clothes. But compelling them to wear Indian dresses is inviting trouble,” he adds.
Last month, Kerala's famed Guruvayoor temple Thursday sprang a surprise by clearing a change in the dress code - now women can enter the shrine wearing the churidar instead of the traditional sari.
In Kerala, churidar is a synonym for salwar-kameez.
So far women were allowed to go inside the Sree Krishna Temple here only in saris. But Vijayan Nambiar, manager of the temple, said the Guruvayoor Devasom Board had taken a decision on churidars at its meeting.
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