Click to play videoKolkata: In a nondescript temple in the heart of Kolkata, generations of women priestesses have been performing puja rituals for years. And far from being ostracized, the temple attracts hoards of devotees from far and wide.
Kasturi Bhattacharjee Pandit is the third generation women priestess of the ancient Sheetala temple that was established in the early 1900s.
She is one of the six daughter-in-laws of the family who act as priest of the temple and offer prayers on behalf of thousands of devotees to the Goddess and perform arati.
While, according to the Hindu tradition, women generally do not enter holy spaces in times of menstruation, Kastrui conducts prayer all through the year
"We don't think of ourselves as unclean because we are women. If the soul and the mind is clean then the body really does not matter," says temple priestess Kasturi Pandit.
"We are all children of the same God. Why should we not be allowed to serve the Gods for the fact that we are women," she adds.
Interestingly, neither Kasturi nor the other priestesses here have had any formal training in the shastras (holy ancient scriptures). They perform the pujas on the basis of teachings passed on to them to them through generations.
While, all women priests handle their own work, the only time you are likely to see a male purohit at the temple is when Lord Narayan is worshipped, as women are still not allowed to touch his idol.
Though women priests are not a common sight in India, in the heart of Kolkata the Pandit family has been able to carry on with this tradition for over a hundred years without facing even the slightest opposition from conservative Hindus.
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