BHUBANESWAR, July 3, 2013: Even as the countdown to the Car Festival has begun, the Jagannath temple administration is still mum on whether to allow foreigners onto the chariots. It has conveniently passed the buck to Sankaracharya for a final decision on the issue.

"Last year, an American devotee was assaulted and shoved off a chariot. We wonder why the temple administration is silent on the contentious issue with Rath Yatra round the corner. The temple administration should come out with a clear notice at the earliest to avoid a rerun of the unpalatable incident," said Andreas Phillip, an Iskcon devotee from France.

Some Jagannath researchers feel that there is no harm in allowing foreigners onto the chariots. "The chariots of the deities should be thrown open to people of all religions since we cannot bend the age-old practice of not allowing non-Hindus into the temple," said retired professor and Jagannath researcher S N Dash. "Rath Yatra is the only occasion when the deities come out of the temple for devotees. And It is nowhere mentioned that non-Hindus cannot climb atop the chariots," he added.

Temple's spokesperson Laxmidhar Pujapanda admitted, "The scripture only says pilgrims can have darshan of the deities on chariots. But nothing has been stated about climbing atop the chariot or touching the deities," he said. He said the issue would be raised at the temple's managing committee meeting on Wednesday. "Since it is a religious matter, we had referred it to Puri Sankaracharya, who is consulting servitors and religious scholars. We have not yet received any communication from him," he added.

The Puri seer had convened two meetings in past one year to resolve the issue, but both ended inconclusively, sources said. "We had urged the temple administration to provide us religious scriptures, which contain the following rules. But it is yet to respond," said a functionary of the Sankaracharya's Govardhan mutt.

A temple officer, requesting anonymity, said: "We were planning to bring reforms and allow foreign pilgrims onto the chariots. I do not think this would have in anyway defiled the image of Jagannath or Hindu religion. But the priests are opposing it."

Shrine servitors have demanded a ban on presence of non-Hindus atop the chariots. "As per tradition, non-Hindus should not be allowed to climb up the chariots," said Ramakrushna Dasmohapatra, a servitor.
 

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 3, 2013.