DRESS CODE IN TEMPLES
(Based on Kerala Tantric traditions)
BREAST TAX , A CROWN OF THORNS PLACED ON HINDU SOCIETY
The main person who made this myth popular is an ‘artist’ named T Murali (calls himself as Chithrakaran). He claims that he found this story while going through a local magazine written by a person from Cherthala. However, some searching on the web will show us that this person runs a blog full of crass anti-Hindu propaganda and paintings and full of sexist remarks which ironically many ‘progressive’ anti-Hindu liberals and feminists claim to be the way of upper caste Hindus who suppressed others. For example, he insulted Sarasvati Devi in the most disgusting manner in one of his blogs in Malayalam.
Here is his blogpost from 2009 reflecting his sick perverted mentality – http://chithrakarans.blogspot.in/2009/01/blog-post_09.html?m=1
He says –
“സമൂഹത്തിലെഭക്തിഭ്രാന്ത്കൂടിവരുന്നസാഹചര്യത്തില്സരസ്വതിയുടെമുലകളുടെമുഴുപ്പ്, സരസ്വതിഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നസാരി, ബ്രായുടെബ്രാന്ഡ്തനെയിം, പാന്റീസ്, തുടങ്ങിയവസ്തുതകളെക്കുറിച്ച്ചിന്തിക്കുന്നത്പ്രസക്തമാണെന്ന്ബോധോദയമുണ്ടായിരിക്കുന്നു.”
Translation:
“Since devotion to Gods (bhakti) is becoming popular (he calls it as ‘madness’) in the society, thought that it is relevant to think about the breast size of Sarasvati, the brand name of bra and panties which she uses etc”
Another statement from the blog by the ‘artist’ T Murali (Chithrakaran) :
“ബ്രാഹ്മണന്റെമഹാവിഷ്ണുഎന്നകുണ്ടന്ദൈവത്തിന്(മോഹിനിയാട്ടക്കാരി/രന്)എത്രലിംഗമുണ്ടെന്നും,എത്രയോനിയുണ്ടെന്നുംചിത്രകാരന്സന്ദേഹിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നസത്യംകൂടിവെളിപ്പെടുത്തട്ടെ”
Translation:
“Let me also reveal that Chitrakaran (addressing himself) has been thinking about how many penises and vaginas the gay God Vishnu of Brahmins has.”
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| Blogger Profile of T Murali (alias Chithrakaran), an Adarsh Liberal who spends his free time thinking about breast size and bra/panty brand of Sarasvati Devi, and penises and vaginas of ‘Gay’ Bhagwan Vishnu
His venomous anti-Hindu hate and perverted mind is visible from the statements from his blog. Does this show that the ultra-liberal social activists accusing Hindu society of oppressing people with sexist remarks are actually projecting their own sick minds on others – “If we wallow in the gutter, so must the world!”
If this pervert had written in a similar vein about the icons of the Abrahamic faiths – Islam and Christianity, he would have been dead or in hiding by now. Still, liberals claim that it is the Hindus who are intolerant!
Anyway, we shall now refute his claim of Nangeli chopping off her breasts. First of all, how could a woman endure the pain after cutting off her breasts and then go and present her breasts to the tax inspector? If at all we consider her to be a brave woman like many other women this country has produced, there are also zero historical documents supporting this myth, apart from local fable. But as seen earlier in our article about Cheraman Perumal, local fables without any facts or documents for support cannot be accepted as historical evidence as it takes only a small amount of time for what is just a story to become a historical fact.
Another fact is that in reality all women of Kerala never really covered their breasts until early 20th century (except for few royals and other aristocrats who had access to luxurious dress)
Dutch representative William Van Nieuhoff in 17th century writes about the attire of Ashwathi Thirunal Umayamma Rani, then queen of Travancore:
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“… I was introduced into her majesty’s presence. She had a guard of above 700 Nair soldiers about her, all clad after the Malabar fashion; the Queens attire being no more than a piece of callicoe wrapt around her middle, the upper part of her body appearing for the most part naked, with a piece of callicoe hanging carelessly round her shoulders.”
The above image is the 17th century painting of Nieuhoff introducing himself in front of Umayamma Rani. We can see her being topless along with her topless women attendants. Even the men of Kerala never wore any upper garment just like the soldiers of the queen seen in the image.
Kerala had a good tropical climate, and there was no need of covering oneself with so many garments. Traditional attire of old Kerala men were mundu or lungi alone, without any shirts. Similar case existed in other regions like Bali and Sri Lanka which had similar climate and people had less clothings including women. Balinese women went topless until few decades ago. It was only after the Islamic invasions and introduction of Victorian morals (morals of the west) that “covering the body more” argument came into being.
The article published in The Newsminute also says, “In 1813, the Travancore court Dewan Colonel John Munro threw them a carrot and issued an order saying Nadar women who converted to Christianity could cover their chests with an “upper cloth”. The royal court opposed this and the women were only allowed to wear a long blouse that the Muslims and Syrian Christians of the time wore.” But in reality, the church with the British support had all the authority of opposing the orders of the Travancore Raja as seen from the documents of Swathi Thirunal’s period, which also claims that the early demise of Swathi Thirunal was because of the pressure he had to face for which one of the reasons was the intervention of the British in his administration and cultural issues. So this shows that the western judges had passed a judgment according to their morals which was opposed by the administration of Travancore as it was not their tradition and not a caste issue as stated by these liberals.
Even after reading all this, if anyone wants to argue that upper caste Hindus forbade lower caste women from wearing upper garments then here are few images of topless upper caste Nambuthiri Brahmin and Nair women.
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A Nair woman from Malabar (Kerala) by Klein & Pearl Studio, Madras, early 20th century.
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| Topless Nambuthiri Brahmin lady from a Malayalam book by Kanippayyur Shankaran Namboodiripad |
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| Painting ‘Malabar Beauty’ by Raja Ravi Varma (she wears no upper garment, but covering with a cloth just as model) dated to 19th century. |
Painting of the 19th century Junior Queen of Travancore Bharani Thirunal Rani Parvathi Bayi by Raja Ravi Varma, she’s again covering her breasts with a mere cloth without any garments.
Nair girls in a temple procession, from the book ‘The Cochin Tribes and Castes’ by L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer.
Ezhava family from an early 20th century book titled ‘Glimpses of Travancore’ by N. K. Venkateswaran
Ezhava girls, from the book by L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer
So the divide was between rich and poor and not between upper castes and lower castes like the anti-Hindu brigade claims. Even after covering bosoms became popular, it was only worn by certain rich people who had access to all the luxury, regardless of caste, and those who preferred it.
Thus this shows that liberals with perverted mind like T Murali who are nothing but rabid Hinduphobes and sepoys have been creating stories of their own in the past few decades, and are also obtaining help from Western international media like BBC who support their stories without proper research, in order to demonize Hindus and continue the colonial tradition of ‘atrocity literature’ to shame the Hindus.
Now in Thiruvananthapuram, at Sripadmanabhaswami temple, we have seen a problem related dress code. Some feminist and communist movements want to enter the temple in churidar. But the temple authorities and related people don't permit this.
According to the HINDU tradition or to be precise an INDIAN culture a Saree is considered as an ethnic wear. Churidar is not considered as a indian product and history sees it as a Persian- iran origin. Churidar made its way into India along with Islamic Turkic-Iranian Empire.
Temple is a place where we connect ourselves to not just the divinity but also our past and tradition. Saree is a medium that truly connect us with our past... let us see...
The history and origin of sari seems to date back to the period of establishment of civilization. Evidence states that women in the Indus valley civilization used to cover themselves with a long piece of cloth. Indian saree is also mentioned in Rig veda, which is the oldest surviving literature of the world.
Importance of saree in a spiritual sense : ( Yogic science )
We all human beings are broadly made of two kinds of elements, Energy and Consciousness. First one is female in nature and the second is considered male. A woman has predominantly female energy and the man has male elements. The healthy energy movement in our body, and in Earth and in the Universe is all in the same way, it moves in circles. That’s is why a woman body is more curvy. To remain healthy, energies in our body should keep moving in circular motion. Any energy coming towards our body first touches our clothes and then it enters into the body and its energy channels and then to the internal organs . Sari is worn in circular motion around body. It keeps circling until almost until the end. So it is easy to understand that when an energy touches the sari, it travels in circles around the body, helping the energy move in the correct way, which makes the saree a winner in clothing. It helps to keep our mind, body and soul healthy. Another, good part is that, while energy traveling in 5-6 yards of cloth, the negative energies coming inside gets stuck in the cloth and it then cleans up with washing. These kind of heavy energies are lazy and cannot move a lot. In the atmosphere it travels with air. However, a cloth with lot of stitches, actually confuses the energy and is harmful for health. There is one very important thing to remember that the clothing should be made with natural fabrics like cotton. Synthetics are big energy blockers and quite harmful for overall health.
The mid part of the body is left uncovered in Sari, for which some feel that it exposes the skin. Actually, there is a big reason behind that too. The stomach area which is left uncovered, is the "Brahmasthan" of the body. Body receives a lot of life force energy from this area. This should be left open always. Even in Vaastu Science, the centre part of the house called "Brahmasthan", and is left open to sky.
Saree is the most versatile garment ever invented in the world.
Because -
a. You can wear it in a lot of ways
b. It is designed such that you can easily alter its length or add pockets with a few folds and tucks
c. You can decide the amount of body you want to show or cover.
d. Saree is draped around the body, hence it flatters almost any body shape.
e. You can convert any fabric into saree, it can be plain or royal, you can use the pallu when its sunny, you can use it to store keys like Bengali women.
d. You can also have a number of blouses just for one saree.
The outfit options with just one saree are endless. Unfortunately, the different draping techniques have been lost and only 4 to 5 techniques are popularly known today.
However, there are Saree books that have atleast 40 to 50 different ways of draping a Saree.
The soft draping characteristics of the most common fabrics like silks, georgettes, chiffons make the sari flow and move with the body thus making it comport with your own body in a sensuous way.
Unlike any other female dress on the planet, the sari could be worn with elegance by women of any age, size or shape as it has body-conforming design without being too clingy, tight or revealing in the places where women commonly gain weight like a pair of jeans, shorts, or a fitted top would.
VIRTUES INCULCATED UPON WEARING A SAREE AND ITS BENEFITS
v Inculcation of humility
v Generation of modesty
v Increase in the stability of the mind and concentration of the chitta (Subconscious mind)
v Awakening of maternal feelings
v Feeling that a saree is the symbol of a Deity
v Development of bhava
v Increase in self-confidence
v Increase in Kshatravrutti (Attitude of a warrior)
So we were explained about the greatness of saree so far...
Communist Feminist now ask...if once women walked inside temples half naked what is the problem now and what is the need for a dress code?
Ans :In the beginning, all humans roamed around naked does that mean that now we have to do the same...?
To such people now the Era is different, a grandmother is afraid to walk in the road at night... Saree is a dressing that can be worn in many different ways. It can be worn in such a way that it attracts respect, traditional values and confidence in the person who wears it.
Then they say... It is not comfortable...
Using bulbs in the lamp is comfortable than lighting fire with ghee inside temples... that will be the reply.
It is not just for women, all people have their own dress codes and rules inside a temple. We have not seen a priest ( Poojari ) in the temple in Jeans, earphones and a smart phone doing services of God. A priest needs to be in his custom otherwise we don't feel okay with it. To access the divine, there is some philological factors that must be satisfied...temple rules, dress code, lamps etc comes under those factors.
It is not just women but men too have dress code. Men must wear just a dothi or if they want they can wear a melmundu, a cloth worn around the sholulder. ( Kerala tradition )
Kshetra preveshana vilambaram ( The Temple Entry Proclamation )
When you go to see a person who does Agnihotri yagya, you should not go empty handed similarly when you go to see a pregnant lady, we have to gift her some good food, not just her but her baby too. When you go to see old men or small kids , we have to buy them something.
Similarly when you go to the temple you have take something like camphor, dhoop, oil, ghee or something useful and if you were not able to arrange anything just donate little money for temple expenses. You should never enter the temple with oil or ghee applied on ourselves. You should never enter the temple with urban in your head. You should also not enter the temple wearing upper garments or shirt and women shouldn't enter the temple without covering themselves perfectly.
Why can't we wear shirt inside temples ?
There is great different between male and female body properties. It is like land and rivers. It is said that if rivers don't have menstruation, plants and other crops won't grow in the land. Even for rivers, it its claimed to have menstruation period. In this body, there are many vaayus. The Vaayu that makes us sneeze, the vaayu that make us breathe , the vaayu that governs sexual intercourse etc... women has a vaayu that not in men that is the vaayu that governs the pregnancy.
Female body is greatly receptive to energies around them. The faces of the moon causes menstruation cycle in them. It is said that , when a women is in her monthly cycle, she absorbs all energy around her in rapid manner that is why its advised not to visit cremation grounds or sit near a person, who is eating when a girl is in her cycles. They are also not allowed inside temple because they can highly absorb the positive energy which is not good for their body.
In the temple, when we come to see the energized idol, we hear sound many musical instruments like edakka, dhamaru, sound of shanknath and bell. These all are the external sources that helps in the spiritual upliftment or kundalini rise in a male body which he can receive only if he is shirtless.
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| Edakka |
While it is advised to wear metal ornaments in excess when women go to temple because they have more receptive factors and also they receive the energies within the temple in such a way.
But Why does the Communist part want to change the temple rules and regulations ?
Why don't they leave Temple management to Temple authorities ?
A mosque doesn't even allow Women inside , no issues with that ?
Why can't they have rationalist ideas on other religions too ?
This is just because they want to convert temples into tourist locations and to exploit these divine spots.
Reference :
http://historycorner.expertscolumn.com/article/history-temple-entry-proclamation
http://www.hindupost.in/society-culture/breast-tax-a-false-story-to-attack-hindus/
Amazing
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