Mumbai: Women devotees entered the inner sanctum of the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra on Friday evening to offer prayers, hours after a 400-year-old ban was lifted.
Two women entered the inner sanctum around 5 pm followed by a larger group led by Bhumata Brigade activist Trupti Desai, who led the agitation for the right of women to enter the shrine.
"It's a big victory for women. We will all enter the sanctum and offer prayers. I am very happy that we have achieved this,"said Desai.
"We will continue with our fight to allow women in other temples as well. We will also be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard," she said.
Sayaram Bankar, a trustee of Shani Shingnapur temple, said the trustees held a meeting and decided to facilitate unrestricted entry to all devotees including men and women, in keeping with a high court directive.
"We will welcome (Bhumata Brigade leader) Trupti Desai also if she comes for darshan," he said, referring to the campaign spearheaded by the outfit for breaking the tradition followed by the shrine.
The Bombay High Court had on April 1 held that it is the women's fundamental right to go into places of worship and the government is duty-bound to protect it. The temple then reversed its rule and said neither men nor women would be allowed into the area.
But on Friday morning, 50 men from Shingnapur village entered the temple's sanctum sanctorum and offered prayers to the deity on the occasion of 'Gudi Padwa', even
as temple officials tried to prevent them.
Following this, the temple Trust met and decided to allow both men and women inside the sanctum, lifting a tradition that has been in place for 400 years.
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