Senior servitor Binayak Dasmohapatra said Puri Jagannath temple is an important religious site among the four dhams.Binayak Dasmohapatra said, “Lakhs of devotees visit Puri for the darshan of Lord Jagannath. Therefore, implementing a dress code for all devotees is essential to upholding the temple’s spirituality and sanctity.”
The Daitapati Nijog, a servitor’s body in Puri Srimandir has been demanding a dress code for the devotees visiting the Puri Jagannath temple, complaining that many came to the temple in shorts that hurt the religious sentiments of other devotees.
From January 1 next year, devotees will have to wear ‘decent’ clothes to enter the Jagannath temple in Puri.
“Devotees should wear traditional clothes while visiting Jagannath temple. They should not wear clothes such as shorts, ripped jeans and skirts. Dress code has been introduced at several shrines across the country,” he added.
Kainchi Dham in Uttarakhand becomes another temple to ban entry of devotees in ‘revealing’ clothes
Kainchi Dham Temple, popularly known as the Neem Karori Baba’s temple is one of the most revered sites for the Hindus. In order to maintain the sanctity of the temple, the temple administration has issued a notice in which they have said that entry of those who would be wearing indecent or inappropriate or revealing clothes will be prohibited.
The board of the temple has placed a notice outside in which iot has mentioned, “”All devotees coming to visit the holy shrine of Sri Kainchi Dham are kindly requested to refrain from entering the temple premises wearing ‘disrespectful’ and ‘indecent’ attire, while maintaining the sacredness of the temple.”
The decision to define the dress code was taken at a meeting of the trust. The temple administration in the past had already imposed a ban on photography and videography at the temple.
Know the other temples where dress code is being applied
Some of the other temples In Uttarakhand where such a ban has been imposed are:
- Daksheshwar Mahadev Temple in Haridwar
- Neelkanth mahadev temple in Rishikesh
Madhya Pradesh’s historic Swaminarayan Temple too had set the dress code to ‘preserve ancient culture and traditions.’ Swaminarayan Temple’s priest, Rajendra Prasad had said that the current trend of wearing revealing clothing might be appreciated by the youth. However, in the long run its impact is detrimental.
Other temples like Tuljabhavani temple in Tuljapur Pune, Shree Ladleeji Maharaj temple in Barsana, Awe Wali Mata temple (Jammu), Gopalkrishna Mandir at Gorakshan Sabha campus( Dhantoli), Sankatmochan Hanuman Mandir ( Belori), Brihaspati Mandir in Chauki (Kanholibara), and Durga Mata Mandir at Hill Top are also adopting the proposed ‘vastra sanhita’ dress code.
