7 years, 8 months ago

From an outcast to a temple priest

Patna: Two priests stand before flower-draped Hanuman idols, accepting offerings from devotees; plucking a flower from among those adorning the deities and adding it to the prasad as a blessing, before returning it to the devotees waiting with folded hands and bowed heads. Every time I come here, I make sure I touch Phalahari baba’s feet at least once,” says Vinay Aggarwal, a 50-year-old businessman who visits the temple every day on his way to work. A Hanuman temple appointing a Dalit priest would ordinarily have resulted in some kind of resistance from the locals in a state where caste still remains relevant. Till now, I have installed Dalit priests in over a dozen temples here,” says Kunal, who has written a three-volume book titled Dalit Devo Bhav, which demolishes “myths” around caste-discrimination in Hindu society and the place of Dalits in history. “I never thought, nor had I ever heard about a Dalit priest in a temple where all castes would come till then, but I wasn’t scared.

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