Ravan’s statue stokes controversy in Jodhpur

Last year, the community announced that the temple would be renovated and an order for a six-foot statue of Ravan was placed. The statue was installed in the temple a month ago but the pran pratishta puja was to be held on Thursday, on the occasion of sharad poornima.

But Jodhpur District Collector’s office issued an order on Wednesday banning the pooja. “Officials from the District Collector’s office came to us and said we cannot go ahead as we had sought no permission. We had never heard that one needs to take a permission for such a thing,” said Ajay Dave, head priest at the temple.

The officials also informed the temple priests that worship of Ravan was to be discontinued as they did not take permission before installing the statue.

District Collector N P Gangwar told The Indian Express that the puja had been banned as certain section of the society had raised an objection. “The puja seemed to be hurting the religious sentiments of some sections and hence, we requested them to formally get a permission and then hold the puja. We have not banned, but only postponed it,” said Gangwar, refusing to give details on who had raised the objection. However, sources confirmed that the saffron brigade had raised an objection.

The Dave Goda community is upset with this move of the state authorities. “People can worship their Gods and stars like Amitabh Bachchan or Rajnikant, but not Ravan. What logic is that?” asked the head priest.

“Dave Goda is a sub-caste of the Shrimali Brahmins and we have several members living in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and even Haryana. It would be difficult to say when we shifted here from Ravan’s Lanka but we have always maintained respect for the great scholar. We never celebrate Dussehra and when others go ahead with Ravan Dahan, we mark it as a death in the family,” said Pandit Kamlesh Dave, consultant for the temple.

“Ravan was not evil or as bad as he is portrayed. He was a great scholar, a learned person. Even today, crores of people recite the Shiv Tandav written by Ravan, but they did not respect him. We want this image to change. Yes, he made mistakes, but he was not evil,” said Pandit Kamlesh.