Purification Rituals at the Sree Dharma Sastha Temple, Sabarimala, and the Tantrasumuccaya

Presenter:

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Abstract

Right after two women in their 40ies had entered the Sree Dharma Sastha Temple at Sabarimala on the second of January 2019 the priests of the temple performed a purification ritual to remove the pollution caused by the incident. Both events, the entrance of the two women and the purification ritual, were reported as controversial, each for its own reasons. The women were said to be the first to enter the temple since September 28, 2018, when the Indian Supreme Court declared the exclusion of women between 10 and 50 of age from entering the temple unconstitutional; and the purification ritual was criticized as a practice of untouchability in relation to menstruating women. Several news media quoted an earlier affidavit by the chief tantri (priest) of the temple, where he expressed the view that it is a Hindu custom that women in their periods refrain from religious activity such as temple service, and as evidence he referred to the medieval text, the Tantrasaumuccaya, which he said is the basic textual foundation of temple worship and temple management in Kerala. The purification ritual was also said to be performed according to the instructions in the same text. But what does the Tantrasamuccaya actually say about women’s temple entrance, and in what context? In this presentation I will go through the relevant text passages of the Tantrasamuccaya. The ideas about pollution and purification in the text will be put into a historical perspective. Also, the role of the Tantrasamuccaya for the temple administration in Kerala will be discussed.