PRIESTS FORCED TO GO UNSHAVEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18012, 24 November 1926, Page 6

PRIESTS FORCED TO GO UNSHAVEN.

BARBERS BOYCOTT BRAHMINS AT SHRINE. (Special to the “ Star..") LONDON, September 30. Because they have been refused leave to worship at the shrine of Shiva, the goddess of the Royal familv of Mysore, the barbers have declared a boycott against the Brahmin priests at thO famous hill shrine in the Charmundv hills.' writes an Indian conespondent of a London daily. The Temple of C’hamundeshWari. the name by which the dreaded Kali is known in Mysore, is the chief resort of all followers of Shiva, the Redeemer of Hindu Trinity, and Brahmins as well as non-Bfahmiris wdrshit the same Goddess. When some members of the barber caste went to the temple to worship they were not allowed within the sacred -precincts of the inner shrine. When they insisted on going in they were' forcibly turned but. y\s a protest they held a meeting or the caste council, or Panchayat and passed a resolution bovcotting the Brahmins till they yielded. No other caste man except a barber can perform tonsorial functions, and as the barbers have gone on strike every other person on that hill must go without a shave. Moreover, the laws of Manu lav* down that on every new mrion and full moon days, a Brahmin priest, following the Vedic School, perform nis worship of the old ancestors after a shave. But they cannot shave themselves,, as it would violate the rules of their caste. At present there is a deadlock.