India – City of Pune – Women Hindu Priests

Indian
City Opens Doorway to Female Hindu Priests

02/26/08

By
Gagandeep Kaur
WeNews correspondent

While women are barred from Hindu temples in some other parts of India,
women in the city of Pune are studying the priesthood at two schools and
conducting ceremonies. Eighth in a series on the changing role of women in
India.

PUNE, India (WOMENSENEWS)–This year,
Preeti Agarwal, a 30-year-old housewife, broke tradition during the Feb. 11
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 the
ceremony, or “puja,” 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 of mustard flowers–and gather
to pray for the blessing of knowledge in an elaborate ceremony set to
background chants and drumbeats.

In the past, Agarwal has followed customary practice and invited a male
priest–known as a pandit–to observe the tradition.

“Most of the time, a pandit would be so busy that he would just chant
the mantras and finish his job and leave,” says Agarwal. “He
wouldn’t explain the meaning of the mantras or the meaning behind the
rituals. This is not the case with women priests. I first saw a woman
conducting religious rituals at a friend’s place and was impressed. I decided
that the next time there was a puja at my place, I will invite a woman priest
only.”

This year, the puja was different, she says. Her 7-year-old daughter asked
lots of questions and Sunita Joshi, the female priest who conducted it,
answered them all patiently.

Agarwal lives in Pune, a city in the western, progressive part of India
where women are joining the priesthood even as they are barred from entering
temples in other parts of the country.

Pune led the effort in India to draw girls into school and educate them,
and was also one of the first cities to allow widows to remarry, a concept
that was once largely absent in traditional Hindu culture.

Although a few women have trained as pandits in the southern city of
Hyderabad, Pune is on the vanguard. While Hinduism does not technically bar
women from becoming priests, it is not accepted as standard practice in most
of India. Even in Pune the idea is novel, and people have taken time in
accepting it. Women who have taken up the work have faced strong resistance
from male pandits.

Formal Training
in Women’s School

Pune’s revolution to allow women into the priesthood began in the early
1980s, when Shankarrao 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 approach of the male priests toward the rituals and ceremonies
prompted Thatte to start four-month training courses for women. Today, Pune
has two schools for female priests, Thatte’s Shankar Seva Samiti and Jnana
Prabodhini.

Vishwanath Gurjar, who heads the priesthood division of Jnana Prabodhini,
says that women have an equal right to “moksha,” the Hindu concept
of the liberation of the soul from the continual cycle of birth, life, death
and rebirth. According to him, there is nothing in the scriptures to suggest
that women are not equal to men.

Says Gurjar: “It is only the mindset of people that stops them from
accepting women in certain roles.” His school started out with
three-month courses for female priests and has since expanded to eight
months. So far, 12 classes of 30 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 to study the priesthood, says Gurjar. Some do it for
their personal education, others out of interest in the profession. Pandits
earn a fee for each ritual they perform, ranging between $1.25 and $3, but
customers also tip them a little extra if they are happy with the rites.

Sandhya Kulkarni, a scholar and “purohit”–another word for
pandit–started practicing professionally some 10 years ago. She has
completed a doctorate in Sanskrit, the classical language in which the most
important Hindu scriptures are written.

“Initially I decided to study scriptures because I was very
interested in the Sanskrit language,” she says. “Later I developed
a genuine interest in the priesthood and decided to take it up as a
profession. Apart from that I also felt that I should not blindly follow the
rituals 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 of religious living. The important scriptures include the
four Vedas, as well as the Manusmriti, Ramayana, Bhagvad Gita and Mahabharta.
Primary tenets include moksha and karma, the belief that actions have
subsequent reactions. The divine takes many forms and rituals are often
observed at home on a daily basis.

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

Shortage of Men
for Festivals

Initially, women were invited to conduct rituals only when male pandits
were unavailable during the hectic festival season, from the end of August to
November. Many a time, female priests found the appointment canceled because
an elderly member of the family objected 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. In many instances, they are preferred over
male priests. Women do it with a sense of mission and that is the main
difference. People appreciate that we explain the meaning of chants and
mantras.”

Their acceptance as pandits has been eased by a recognition that the
priesthood did not come to them by inheritance, but rather as a result of
genuine interest and hard work to prove 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 Indians who believe
they take the work for granted.

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

Madhuri Karavade has been a purohit for the last seven years.

“My in-laws are very traditional and I didn’t know much about the
rituals so I decided to come 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
“upnayan” rite, which initiates a young boy into Hinduism. Her
ceremony included both boys and girls.