Even women priests are doing puja in Hindu temples

Hindu chants ring through Pradnya Patil's new home. It's on the 11th floor of a luxury apartment building in Pune. In the sunny living room, statues of Hindu gods are arranged on the floor. A smell of incense fills the air. A traditional house-warming ceremony is underway. But Pradnya Patil has broken with tradition today - the 35-year-old has invited a woman priest to perform the ritual. Patil is convinced that women priests are better than their male counterparts. "I recently attended a house-warming ceremony led by a male priest - it took five whole hours! But women priests perform similar rituals in just one hour. They explain the importance of the rituals and why they are still relevant. They're very sincere and committed. Now, my relatives and even my conservative father have switched to women priests."

Many Hindu rituals are elaborate and take hours. Chitra Lele sits on the floor in Pradnya Patil's apartment and explains the ritual in the local language Marathi. She looks nothing like a traditional Hindu priest in austere white robes. Instead, she wears a colorful silk sari and trendy rimless glasses. The 41-year-old is married and has a teenage daughter. She was drawn to the priesthood out of an interest in Hinduism and Sanskrit. She performs all kinds of rituals: naming ceremonies, weddings as well as festivals. She says female priests have struck a chord among young urban Indians. "We women priests explain the gist of the ritual in just one hour. We try and involve the people watching. So we're popular among the young generation."

Priesthood courses: Women like Chitra Lele are challenging traditional notions of priesthood. And they are learning to do that at Pune's Dyanprabodhini center, which was started by a social reformer. The school's imposing stone building is located in the bustling old part of the city. More than 20 women are currently enrolled in the one-year priesthood course. They come from all Hindu castes. Most are housewives between 40 and 65 years of age. They are trained in religious rituals and each of the 16 sacraments of Hinduism. And they’re taught Sanskrit, the country's classical language in which the Hindu religious mantras are chanted - and which few Indians understand.

"We have a great pleasure that women who are learning here are performing outside in society very confidently. They are progressive but they still preserve our ancient traditions and culture also", says Aarya Joshi, teacher of the course. The 30-year-old explains that women priests largely perform religious ceremonies at private homes – not at temples. And they don't perform funerals or death rites either. They are more widely accepted in big cities than in more conservative rural India.

Joshi is a Sanskrit researcher herself. She's working on her doctorate on Hindu ancestral worship. She points out that Hinduism has never barred women from performing religious rites. There's even mention of them in ancient religious writings. But later men came to dominate the profession. They declared that priests could only be male and only from a particular Hindu caste. That thinking prevails till today. "The problem occurs because I think that people don't have an exact idea of women priesthood", says Joshi. "They don't know that this is an ancient tradition for the past 5,000 years. It's a typical orthodox mindset. Some 25 percent of the people aren't ready to accept women priesthood. But we think it will change with the period of time, so we have to wait for that."

In Pune, female priests have become quite popular an there have been mixed reactions. On the hot, busy street outside the school, people are divided about whether women should work as priests. "I don't think women should be conducting religious ceremonies. Our culture doesn't allow it. That's how it's always been," says one man. But another one is more open: "I don't have a problem with women priests. But I think it's bad if they conduct religious ceremonies during menstruation. It's impure." A woman adds, "I think it's good if women work as priests. As a woman, you feel less scared talking to them than you do to male priests."

Male resistance: Back at the school, Joshi says the main opposition to women priests usually comes from the male clergy. "Actually male priests, who are performing rituals in the traditional ways, have a great worry about their source of income because this is their bread and butter." Anand Pandharpure agrees. He's been working as a priest for the last 20 years, having been trained at an early age by his own father. He says that to become a Hindu priest, men have to undergo rigorous daily training at special religious schools for at least 7 to 8 years. The 40-year-old is dismissive of what he calls "priesthood light" courses for women.

"You face many complex questions as a Hindu priest", says Pandharpure. "But women often can't answer them because they only get superficial training. And I think people are being fooled when so-called women priests shorten religious rituals. It's more like entertainment. It gives priesthood a bad name." Pandharpure is dressed in the traditional clothes of a Hindu priest – a white dhoti and a black peaked cap. He rejects the idea that women priests pose a threat to him and his male colleagues. "Women often turn to priesthood after 40, once their kids have grown up, and they have nothing to do. But I don't think that’s right. Priesthood is not just a hobby. It's an important responsibility. For us men, being priests is a lifelong learning experience. But frankly we don't take the issue of women priests too seriously – their numbers are really negligible."

It is important to note that Hinduism by itself does not ban the practice of women becoming priests; there is no scripture that disallows it. In fact, in ancient Vedic times, women have been known to enjoy equal freedom in the pursuit of knowledge as men did: they also studied the Vedas.” The Durga temple at Amrit Anandamayi math at Kerala and the Linga Bhairavi temple at Isha Yoga center have Woman priests. They are consecrated in such a way that only feminine energy can maintain the energy. Moreover, the nuns (Brahmacharini) of Amritananamdamayi math lead and perform poojas with homa kund. No bans as such.

The main reason that women aren't allowed to be the priests of a temple or even enter the temples in some cases is that sexually mature women menstruate. A menstruating woman cannot come close to the shrine because she is impure and she will destroy the sanctity of the shrine. Take a moment to think about how absurd that statement sounds. That's the reason grown up women (when I say grown, I mean girls who've crossed their puberty) were banned from entering or working in temples for centuries. That's the logic the priests gave, and it was law. Now the true logical reason:

During their menses, when women bleed, they generally feel uncomfortable and so, its advisable for them not to do work involving heavy lifting (something that most women had to do in those days, and have to do even now in rural areas), and too much stress. Considering this, there was a custom in ancient India that women during their menses were to be spared for a week to rest, and they need not go to the temples to worship. During that time, it was the responsibility of the males of the family to do the household chores.

This custom was twisted into the vile thing that it is now, where women are considered too impure for even God, who's supposed to redeem all your sins. A purohit in the temple usually had a really difficult routine in the orthodox temples.He had to wake up early, bathe in the cold Kalyani (the temple pond) and do the pooja fasting till late morning. He would take his prasadam after the Naivedya (deity offering).Some temples follow very rigid agama (traditions ) wherein after they ate,he had to have bath again.

Imagine what would have happened to women who would be assigned this job along with their domestic duties to look after their children, husband and in laws. ?! The purohits had rigid rules which were not enforced upon women as it would affect their physical and mental health. Yes, if a women decides she can achieve everything in today's world what a man can do.However I think women shouldn't overburden themselves and lose out the gifts that Mother Nature has endowed exclusively to them.

This is because they want to oppress women in all possible way. Those who says Gargi, Lopamudra had studied Vedas and their were many women studied Vedas. If so, then please allow young girls study Vedas in temples, then I will agree to the point that Hinduism does justice. Forget about non brahmin girls, even brahmin girls do not have opportunity to learn Vedas. We may see few female priest, but they are outliers. 99.99% are male priests and 0.01% can be seen female priests which is quite odd. Same thing goes with Muslims and in Christianity too.

Normally it is like the girls are a unclean (according to all religious books I have ever read not only Hinduism but also various religions like christian and Islam believe that they bleed during "menstrual period of the month" so they are considered as unhygienic. as has so many other important roles to play like mother, sister, sister in law, etc.... etc so it is suggested to them not to take such job. And the main reason is women already deal with so much pain suffering (during "That time of the month" you know) so they are said to rest.

Moreover in most of the rituals (described in religious books) it is clearly mentioned that they are to be performed by a boy/male only (we stick to the rules in these matter). The other than these reason I don't have many brothers but if a girl is smart enough then she can be a purohit its not a big deal but then a different scenario comes into picture that "ye to ladki hai kaisey karegi, isey rivaaj achey se yaad nahi hongey, ye to aadmiyon ka kaam hai falana falana (she is a girl how can she do it?, she doesn't know the rituals, this is men's work etc etc)" (male ego hurts!! may be that what i can say)

The other day my mother was listening to Sadhguru where he said,maybe the women are maintaining the men! Traditions evolved at a certain time in history in a particular situation and context. It is definitely not something I would blindly admit to. There is no such thing as maintaining men. When women have the capability to maintain themselves, men have the same capability. They have the same legs, hands, eyes, ears,nose. The Hindu ideology itself is very contradicting. We do not allow women in a temple because they are menstruating, and we worship a Goddess inside.

The concept of not having a female priest is due to the various myths which deem women unfit to worship let alone them being a priest in a temple. With this wide gape in both the genders, it is engraved in most of the minds that women are impure species which should only be allowed to stay at home and look after kids and give birth to them and look after their men. We created such gender roles which eventually got mingled with religion, or originated from religion, this is till date, not clear.

In olden days, during menstruation women did not have the facility of using a sanitary napkin which led to them feeling uncomfortable in doing heavy works. This lead to people naming them as ‘unfit’ for a lot of jobs, it was such deeply engraved in both their minds (men and women) that women are not allowed inside the temple and women should stay back at home. The very concept of not having a female priest is like any of the jobs which deem women as unfit to work on them. There are female priests in temples. Traditionally Mannarasala has always had lady in charge. I have heard about one more in Karnataka and another in TN. Let me locate details and will share.

The reason for not having was more to do with physical aspects. Women take over family responsibility and physically the strain is tough to do the poojas sitting hours and worse during festivals to carry and go around the temple and procession on elephant etc. Add to it the family life and children and pregnancy, that will make continuity a problem. There is now a feeling that it was inequality. It is not. Physically some of the aspects are really stressful. The mentally and physically capable men only are appointed. So women can also do it. When women are hardly allowed to visit temples, it is a very difficult task to fight against them becoming priests in temples.