Local women gather outside Shani Shingnapur to bar women activists

A group of women headed to the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district on Tuesday were detained by the police at Supa village 70km away from the shrine. Everybody must only offer prayers from below the platform, said a temple trustee Prafull N. Surpuriya. They were however stopped by women police personnel who had made a human chain outside the temple premises. “We will move ahead”, Desai asserted.

All entry points to Ahmednagar witnessed heavy security cover with barricades and police personnel deployed at every nook and corner of the locality to prevent the activists from reaching the temple.

“We have received the application and it has been sent to the office of the Superintendent of Police as they are the one who will take the decision whether to give the permission for helicopter use”, he said. “Why is Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis permitting this?” questioned the 26-year-old Ms. Desai, alleging that the police used “disproportionate force” to foil the activists’ onward march to the Temple Town. If we consider that then why there is ban, or disallowing women to enter into shrine and worship.

The temple platform stands in the centre of the small village, also known as Sonai, and attracts millions of tourists and devotees from across the country and overseas.

Several women activists of Shiv Sena, Hindu Sena and some local outfits thronged the shrine to thwart the campaigners, who had started out from Pune in buses and jeeps with some male volunteers also in tow.

“When men go there, it’s ideal but when women go it becomes unsacred”, said activist Trupti Desai. The protesters had declared her plans to break the tradition months ago.

Only men are permitted to approach the platform, with some followers believing that vibrations emerging from the icon could be harmful to females.

The unique open temple has no walls or roof..

The main temple area of the famous Shani temple, has been out of bounds for women for centuries now.

Fearing damage to temple property, the Ahmednagar district administration had already banned any form of assembly taking cognizance of the Brigade’s stated intention to storm the inner sanctum. A self-emerged (svayambhu) five-foot-high black stone stands on a platform and is worshipped as Lord Shani. The Joint Charity Commissioner, Pune, had served a notice to the organisation against entering the sanctum sanctorum.