Jaimala (actress)

Jaimala is a Kannada (Indian) film actress. Her famous films are "Aaj Ka Ye Ghar, Sampoorna Teerth Yatra, Balak, Spy in Rome, Love and Murder" and "Harishchandra Taramati". She has also produced a movie "Aaj Ka Ye Ghar".

Controversy

She was the centre of the cyclone when she claimed that she touched the Lord Ayyappa idol in Sabarimala. Women from the age 10-50 are banned from entering sabarimala. It created a furor in India and led to ideological warfare in Indian media and courts.

The crux of the controversy lies in her claim that she had touched and prayed for her late husband's health at the famous Indian hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala in Kerala state in April 1987. Women who are fertile are barred from the temple because of the legend that Lord Ayyappa, to whom the temple is dedicated, was a celibate and confirmed.

A minister in the Communist state government has also taken a serious view of the actress's statement. "She is liable for prosecution if what she said is true," said G Sudhakaran. Jayamala has said she regretted her action, but clarified that she was pushed into the shrine by a crowd of devotees.

"I fell flat on the floor, touching the feet of the Lord. It was a moment of ecstasy. I didn't know then that I wasn't supposed to touch the idol," she told reporters. "When I got up, a priest standing nearby gave presented me a rose. As I came out, devotees touched me in veneration because I had felt the Lord." The Supreme Priest of Sabarimala Kantararu Maheshwararu had dismissed the actress's statement as a figment of her imagination. "How could Jayamala, then 27 years old, slip through several rungs of security and reach the innermost precincts of the Lord where women between puberty and menopause are strictly barred from entering?," he said.

The controversy has sparked off a debate on the discrimination towards women in a literate nation like India. Women devotees of Lord Ayyappa are very disappointed that they should be discriminated against in the name of temple sanctity. "It would be primitive to keep women of fertile age off the temple citing decadent myths," lamented many women on Indian media. These biased views do not take into account the fact, however, that even other male devotees have no right in entering the inner precincts of the temple as Jaimala had claimed to have done (only the Brahmins of the temple have the right to do this).

The controversy is not going to die down since Hindu activists have demanded a proper atonement by those defiled the temple, especially by Jayamala. And the case whether women should be allowed in Sabarimala is considered by Supreme Court. Some four to five crore devotees worship at the temple every year. The shrine earns revenues worth ten thousand crores of rupees from pilgrims from all over the country.

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5132602.stm Sabarimala Controversy on BBC ]
* [http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/sagarikaghose/223/14816/the-cosmic-glass-ceiling.html Sabarimala Controversy,CNN-IBN ]
* [http://in.news.yahoo.com/060629/139/65hnz.html Jaimala controversy in Yahoo ]
* [http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/Sep272006/national1747292006926.asp Sabarimala Controversy on Deccan Herald ]