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Its my understanding that Hindu women can go to temples(unlike Muslim women, who can't go to Mosques), also Ihave seen women priests. Most may not have done Puja inthe past, but they were not prohibited from doing Puja. Sothe title of this article: Women at the temple dooris not

appropriate. Gagandeep Kaur seems to be confused here.

http :// www .atimes .com /atimes /South _ Asia /JE 02 Df 01.htmlWomen at the temple door

By Gagandeep Kaur

PUNE, India - This year, Preeti Agarwal, a 30-year-old housewife, broke tradition duringFebruary rituals to worship the birth of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge.

For the first time, she invited a female priest to her home to conduct thepuja, orceremony, to mark the auspicious day when children learn to read and write their first

letters or words. Families dress in yellow - symbolizing spring and the blossoming ofmustard flowers - and gather to pray for the blessing of knowledge in an elaborateceremony set against a background of chants and drumbeats.

In the past, Agarwal has followed customary practice and invited a male priest - knownas apandit- to observe the tradition.

"Most of the time, a pandit would be so busy that he would just chant the mantras andfinish his job and leave," says Agarwal. "He wouldn't explain the meaning of the mantrasor the meaning behind the rituals. This is not the case with women priests. I first saw awoman conducting religious rituals at a friend's place and was impressed. I decided that

the next time there was apuja at my place, I will invite a woman priest only."

This year, thepuja was different, she says. Her seven-year-old daughter asked lots ofquestions and Sunita Joshi, the female priest who conducted it, answered them allpatiently.

Agarwal lives in Pune, a university city in the western, progressive part of India some190 kilometers south of Mumbai where women are joining the priesthood even as theyare barred from entering temples in other parts of the country. Pune led the first efforts inIndia to draw girls into school and educate them, and was also one of the first cities toallow widows to remarry, a concept that was once largely absent in traditional Hinduculture.

Although a few women have trained aspandits in the southern city of Hyderabad, Pune ison the vanguard. While Hinduism does not technically bar women from becomingpriests, it is not accepted in Islam.Even in Pune the idea is novel, and people havetaken time to accept it. Women who have taken up the work have faced strong resistancefrom malepandits.

Formal training in women's school

Pune's revolution to allow women into the priesthood began in the early 1980s, whenShankarrao Thatte - owner of a premier marriage hall in the city, the Udyan Karyalaya -launched the Shankar Seva Samiti, a school to train female priests.

The casual - and often hurried - approach of the male priests toward the rituals andceremonies prompted Thatte to start four-month training courses for women. Today,Pune has two schools for female priests, Thatte's Shankar Seva Samiti and JnanaPrabodhini.

Vishwanath Gurjar, who heads the priesthood division of Jnana Prabodhini, says thatwomen have an equal right to moksha, the Hindu concept of the liberation of the soulfrom the continual cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. According to him, there isnothing in the scriptures to suggest that women are not equal to men.

Several years ago, according to news reports, an important priest, Shankarcharya of Puri,

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denounced the induction of women into priesthood. He felt that the Vedas were a maledomain and should remain so. However, Shankarcharya's disapproval has made no denton the enthusiasm of the women priests.

"Nowhere is it written that women cannot recite the Vedas. In fact, there were female

scholars like Ghosha, Lopamudra, Romasha and Indrani in the Vedic period and womenphilosophers like Sulabha, Maitreyi and Gargi in the Upanishadic period," 52-year-oldVasanti Khadilkar was quoted as saying at the time.

According to Khadilkar, there is a verse from theBhihadaranyakopanishadwhichtranslates as "a well-to-do man always thinks that his daughter should be a scholar".

Headmaster Gurjar agrees: "It is only the mindset of people that stops them fromaccepting women in certain roles." His school in Pune started out with three-monthcourses for female priests and has since expanded to eight months. So far, 12 classes of30 to 35 students each have completed the course.

Personal interests, professional gains

Interest in the scriptures and rituals of worship are generally the inspiration for women tostudy the priesthood, says Gurjar. Some do it for their personal education, others out ofinterest in the profession. Pandits earn a fee for each ritual they perform, ranging betweenUS$1.25 and $3, but customers also tip them a little extra if they are happy with the rites.

Sandhya Kulkarni, a scholar andpurohit- another word forpandit- started practicingprofessionally some 10 years ago. She has completed a doctorate in Sanskrit, the classicallanguage in which the most important Hindu scriptures are written.

"Initially I decided to study scriptures because I was very interested in the Sanskritlanguage," she says. "Later I developed a genuine interest in the priesthood and decidedto take it up as a profession. Apart from that I also felt that I should not blindly follow therituals but should know the reasoning behind them."

Hinduism is the world's oldest major religion and contains a vast body of scriptures,which contemplate mythology, philosophy and theology and expound on the practice ofreligious living. The important scriptures include the four Vedas, as well as theManusmriti, Ramayana, Bhagvad Gita and Mahabharta. Primary tenets include mokshaand karma, the belief that actions have subsequent reactions. The divine takes manyforms and rituals are often observed at home on a daily basis.

Women have made headway in routine religious rituals like marriage; the threadceremony, a rite of passage for boys; or the house-warming ceremony. But rituals andceremonies related to death still continue to be observed only by male pandits. Kulkarniis one of the few female priests who has conducted death rites, partly because women areby tradition not allowed to enter the cremation ground and cremation itself is done by themale members of the family.

Shortage of men for festivals

Initially, women were invited to conduct rituals only when malepandits were unavailableduring the hectic festival season, from the end of August to November. Many timesfemale priests found the appointment canceled because an elderly member of the familyobjected to them.

"There is a marked difference in the attitude of the people in the last three to four years,"says Kulkarni. "There is an increased acceptance of women priests in the city now. Inmany instances, they are preferred over male priests. Women do it with a sense ofmission and that is the main difference. People appreciate that we explain the meaning ofchants and mantras."

Their acceptance aspandits has been eased by a recognition that the priesthood did notcome to them by inheritance, but rather as a result of genuine interest and hard work toprove their worthiness. When men inherit the job they do not necessarily receive an

education or training, and there is a general disaffection with male pandits among some

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Indians who believe they take the work for granted.

Female priests do face some cultural barriers. For instance, a menstruating woman isconsidered impure and is traditionally not allowed to enter a temple or to take part inrituals. The femalepandits keep that in mind and don't conduct any rituals during those

days.

Madhuri Karavade has been apurohitfor the last seven years.

"My in-laws are very traditional and I didn't know much about the rituals so I decided tocome here to study," Karavade says. "I liked it so much that I took it up professionally."

She says her most satisfying moment came when she was able to conduct the upnayanrite, which initiates a young boy into Hinduism. Her ceremony included both boys andgirls.