In a first, three Tamil Nadu women complete training to be priests

Chennai: For the first time, three women in Tamil Nadu have completed their training in state-run centres to become temple priests, which chief minister M K Stalin said heralds a new era of inclusivity and equality.

This is part of the state’s policy to appoint priests of all castes and genders in temples, Stalin said.

A Krishnaveni, S Ramya and B Ranjitha are the first three women in Tamil Nadu to be trained in the agamas at the Archakar Payirchi Palli (priest training schools). They were trained at the Srirangam temple in Trichy, which is one of the six training schools in the state. They received their certificates from minister of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Sekar Babu on Tuesday in Chennai. “We will give the three of them and another 98, who passed out this year, another year of training in temples,” Babu told HT. “We are discussing giving them a stipend.”

Another 17 women have enrolled this year at the priest training schools.

“My grandfather, father, and uncle are all priests in temples. So when my family told me that the government had opened priest training schools for women, I wanted to become a temple priest too,” Krishnaveni told HT. Her family serves at a Goddess Amman temple in their village in Cuddalore district. The 23-year-old completed her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at a government college in Thoothukudi district. Her peers, Ramya (23) and Ranjitha (25), have a master’s degree and an undergraduate degree in visual communication, respectively. All three of them belong to non-Brahmin communities.

They also have no playbook as to how women priests perform rituals in a temple but are thrilled to be the first trio to break into a male bastion. While menstruating, these women stayed away from their classes for three days which they said they would continue to follow after their appointments in temples.

“Despite women’s achievements as pilots and astronauts, they were barred from the sacred role of temple priests, deemed impure, even in the temples for female deities. But change is finally here!” said chief minister Stalin on Thursday in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “…by appointing people of all castes as priests, women are also now stepping into the sanctums, bringing a new era of inclusivity and equality…” Stalin said, adding that his party’s ‘Dravidian Model’ of governance has removed the thorn from the heart of E V Ramasamy, revered as Periyar, who spearheaded the self- respect movement in the state.

The ruling DMK revived the six priest training schools after they formed the government in 2021 after appointing 24 non-Brahmin trained priests in temples across the state.