On Friday, January 13, the Governor of Odisha, Ganeshi Lal urged Puri Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb and Adi Guru Shankaracharya to permit foreign devotees to enter the Jagannath Temple in Puri and offer prayers.
While speaking at the inaugural function of the Odisha Vision 2036 Conclave on Friday in Bhubaneswar, Governor Lal said, “Foreign devotees are allowed to meet Puri Gajapati, Adi Shankaracharya, and servitors and as a result, they should not be barred from paying obeisance to the Lords at the 12th-century shrine.”
Governor Lal stated that despite knowing that many people are opposed to allowing entry to non-Hindus into the temple, he proposed to allow them entry due to his association with Odisha.
It is pertinent to know that the term Hindu includes all the communities that are covered by the Hindu Marriage Act that is Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs other than the followers of Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism). It means that the temple allows entry to followers of Indic religions.
What Supreme Court said
In 2018, the management of the Jagannath Temple was asked by the Supreme Court to consider allowing non-Hindus entry, with the caveat that they adhere to a dress code or promise to uphold the traditions of the temple
The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices A K Goel and S Abdul Nazeer had said back then that, “we also discussed the issue whether the Temple Management can consider allowing every visitor, regardless of his or her faith, to pay respects and make offerings to the Deity, subject to such regulatory measures with regard to dress code, furnishing of a declaration, or such other prerequisites as found necessary.”
The Supreme Court’s ‘consideration’ however, was opposed by the Sevayats (servitors) of the temple. “This is a conspiracy by a group of mischief mongers to deny sevayats their rights,” Binayak Dasmohapatra, joint secretary of the Chhattisa Nijog ( a group of servitors of the temple).
What the Sevayats and the Gajapati Maharaj of Puri said
It is notable that those in favour of continuing the restriction argue that allowing entry to non-Hindus into the Jagannath temple is against the temple’s traditions.
The Gajapati King (Gajapati Maharaja) of Puri Dibyasingha Deb who is also the first servitor of Lord Jagannath and chief of temple management had also opposed Supreme Court’s consideration back then. He said that the sibling deities Lord Jagannath, Lord Balaram, and Devi Subhadra bless all their devotees regardless of their religion during the annual Rath Yatra, adding lakhs of devotees also get the Darshan of the deities during ‘Snan Utsav’ (bathing festival).
Besides, he also raised concerns over the security of the temple. “Let me say for the sake of argument that if the Shankaracharya implies there is no issue with allowing entry of people of all faith into the temple, then also the government has to think carefully while keeping the temple’s security in mind, the Gajapati King said.
When the world is under the threat of terrorism, he questioned, “Can the government provide total security to Temple?”
18 invasions of the Jagannath Temple and restriction on entry of non-Hindus
Destroying the temples and idols of the Kafirs was upheld by the invaders as their “religious duty” during the Islamic invasions of India. Two temples, Somnath in Gujarat and Jagannath in Odisha, have each been invaded 17 and 18 times, respectively, while vast numbers of temples have been desecrated, plundered, and destroyed during that time.
Illias Shah, the Sultan of Bengal, launched the first Muslim invasion of the Jagannath temple in 1340. Around 1360, Firoz Shah Tughlaq destroyed the Jagannath temple and desecrated the idols. In 1509, Ismail Ghazi, the commander of Bengal’s Sultan Husain Shah seized Puri and demolished the idols in the Jaganath Temple. Although Hindu King Prataprudradev chased out Ismail Ghazi, the temple witnessed multiple invasions even after this. Amir Fateh Khan conducted the fifteenth invasion in 1647. It was only after the Marathas made their way into Odisha that the constant invasions of the Jagannath temple stopped.
During the repeated invasions and pillages, the temple’s idols were moved and hidden at distant places. The repeated attacks and destruction of the temple have led the people of Odisha to protect their temple and restrict entry only to the Hindus.
The restriction is followed so strictly that even a Gajapati King was not allowed to enter the temple since he was married to a Mughal soldier’s daughter.
As per Madala Panji, the palm leaf chronicles of the Jagannath temple, one of the Gajapati King Ramachandra Deb was denied entry into the Shri Mandir despite being the first servitor of Lord Jagannath as he was married to Rejiya, who was a Mughal soldier’s daughter.
In 1984 When Indira Gandhi was prime minister, priests objected because she was married to a non-Hindu, consequently, she had darshan from the Raghunandan Library. Even Vinoba Bhave and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi were refused entry into the temple in 1934 when they tried to do so while traveling with foreigners and non-Hindu followers.
