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American woman's entry disrupts Puri temple rituals

Divine sin
Last Updated 28 December 2010, 17:36 IST
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Non-Hindus as well as converted Hindus are not allowed to enter the temple. The servitors of the 12th century shrine raised an alarm when they saw the American lady inside the temple. Subsequently, security personnel manning the temple whisked away the woman,  K T Lenard, and her Indian friend, Gourav Sarangi, out of the temple.

The woman was wearing a churidar kurta. The police and officials of the temple detained the two for a couple of hours and released them after recording their statement. The American woman said neither she nor her Indian friend was aware of the temple rules and her entry into the temple was unintentional.

“We had no intention of hurting anybody’s sentiment. It was a mistake,” Sarangi, from western Orissa who is doing his PhD at an American university with the woman, said.

All the three idols—the Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra—of the shrine had to go through “Mahasnana”, a purification process, after the incident.

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(Published 28 December 2010, 11:53 IST)

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