No dress code in Karnataka temples, says Rudrappa Manappa Lamani

Bengaluru: Minister for Muzrai (Religious Endowment), Rudrappa Manappa Lamani appears completely against the idea of  imposing a strict dress code for devotees at temples in the state given his own experience at the Guruvayur  temple in Kerala.

Ruling out the possibility of having such a code in Karnataka, he recalled that on a visit to Kerala when he was still not a minister, his wife was not allowed to enter the Guruvayur temple in Kerala for a darshan of  the deity, Guruvayurappan as she was wearing a churidhar and kameez and not  a saree. 

“For years the Guruvayur temple has made it a must for women to wear a saree and for men to wear a white  mundu (white panche) and be shirtless when entering it. So several shops near the temple offer sarees and mundus on rent but as my wife was not willing to wear an used saree we returned without having a darshan of the deity. So  I know how devotees feel at such times. How can I then support a dress code in  temples in Karnataka,” he asked, when asked for his views on the subject by Deccan Chronicle.

Agreeing that some devotees visited temples in skimpy clothes, he argued the government could not ask people to dress in a certain way for a darshan of the deity. Clarifying that there was no such proposal before his Ministry, he explained that some months ago he had received a memorandum from some people asking for a dress code in Muzarai temples on the lines of temples in Kerala, and he had promised to consider it. 

“But later a section of the media reported that the government wanted to impose a impose dress code in all important temples, when it’s not true,” he said.