SHOULD NON-HINDUS THE BE ALLOWED TO ENTER TEMPLES?
SCRIPTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Source: TW
Entry of Mlechhas and Anti Vedics in a temple is an insult to the other devotees, if they enter the temple then the temple must be purified by the rite of Samprokshanam.
PARAMAPURUSHA SAMHITA 7.28-30
Those born out of anuloma marriage and the mlechhas, they must worship Hari standing outside the Gopura.
BHRIGU SAMHITA 36.11
If a turk touches the vigraha or enters the mandapa hall, the temple should be purified with the methods described prior.
PRASHNA SAMHITA 49.420-421
If those born out of sagotra marriage or a turk enters the temple, then the temple must be purified by Prokshana..
BHRIGU SAMHITA 31.10
If someone who has “sootaka”, or is a known sinner, a dog eater or a mlechha, enters the temple, then the temple must be purified.
ISHVARA SAMHITA 29.130
Caveat
This infographic done by our team will be misinterpreted, misunderstood, and misrepresented. So, I thought it is important to preemptively add some caveats and clarifications, even though they may be ineffective in the face of the self-righteous indignation of the self-anointed reformists and deluded rationalists.
Before they start beating their chests, let me acknowledge that the same shāstra-s that bar the Turk from entering the sacred premises also talk of not allowing entry to the chāndāla, which begs the question, “Who is a Chāndāla?”. Short answer: They were people from communities outside the jāti-varna matrix and those who were made outcastes for what would be considered a serious moral transgression in earlier eras.
Temples are centers of intense ritual activity and therefore, ritual purity is of utmost importance. Individuals who were deemed to be ritually impure either due to temporary circumstances like death in the family, periods for women etc, or by birth in a community outside the Vedic fold or engaged in a vocation considered ritually impure, were barred from entry into temples or the garbha-griha, as the case may be. This is a plain fact over which many progressive Hindus lose sleep.
Things changed drastically in the last 200 years and adherence to ritual purity became increasingly rare even among dvija-s (so-called higher castes). So, the question of temple entry became more intricate as the qualification line got blurred. This was followed by praiseworthy work like Temple Entry Proclamation by Hindu kings like Maharaja Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma and similar initiatives by other kings and gurus. At the same time, the changing norms clashed with the fundamental basis of temple consecration and worship, which came to us through the same scriptures that gave us the temple entry rules too. The question before Hindus was: How should we adapt to the changing social reality without damaging the very DNA of Hindu Dharma - the shāstra-s. For some Hindus, as is the case with the ignorant or gullible today, it was time for a massive revolution aka reformation in the vein of the Protestant one. For the more serious-minded, there were no easy answers.
Swami Karpatri ji was one among them, who was committed to preserving the “shāstriya maryādā” or scriptural sanctity while being fully cognisant of the shifting social paradigm. In the turbulent and motivated politics over the entry into the garbha-griha of Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Karpatri ji came up with a novel solution. He suggested that instead of barring entry to this identity group or that, it would be advisable to not allow anyone other than the authorised archaka-s of the temple inside the garbha-griha. He famously remarked, “Let the Scholars, the King, and the Harijans have darshan from the same gallery. This way the Harijans would not feel discriminated against and the sanctity of the temple would also be maintained.” As a matter of fact, most āgamic temples of the south follow this norm without any fuss even today.
The other option, which asks us to toss away the shāstra with disdain or in more palatable words, modify them, fails to address the complexity of the question. The battle between falsehood and truth manifests on social media as the battle between a meme/caricature and the reality in all its inconvenient and dumbfounding glory. As the saying goes, ‘A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is getting its boots on’.
PS: These rules mentioned in the infographic do not apply to temples managed by specific jāti-s (often shudra-s) as they have their own code of conduct. In other words, the entry qualification is even more rigid, narrow, and wait for it - DiScRiMiNaToRy.