The Woman Priest at Lord Hanuman Temple (standard:non fiction, 896 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Dec 22 2013	Views/Reads: 3827/1954	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
At any place of worship either Christian, Hindu or Muslim, not often one finds a woman priest. At Lord Hanuman Hindu temple in Pineappleville, a town on southeastern coast of India, a woman priest conducted the worship at decades ago with little success.

A Woman Priest at Lord Hanuman Temple 

Subba Rao 

There were several Hindu temples in Pineappleville, a large 

town on the southeastern sea coast of India known for pineapples. The 

temples with deities known for fulfilling devotees' wishes were always 

crowded.  There were other temples in town that attract crowds only on 

auspicious days according to Hindu calendar. Then there was this small 

Lord Hanuman temple on the main road that was sparsely attended by the 

devotees even on the auspicious days. 

Lord Hanuman, a half-man and half primate, a devout servant of 

Lord Rama in Hindu mythology was one of the incarnations of god. Lord 

Hanuman maintained lifelong celibacy to conserve physical energy 

totally for acts of good deeds.   For example, he pulled a mountain 

from the ground up and carried single-handedly flying with it to a far 

distance with its fauna and flora to supply the magic herbal plant on 

it to restore the life of Lord Laxmana died in a freak accident during 

the holy war of Ramayana.  Lord Hanuman with help of his fellow 

primates built a bridge using rocks from the ocean depth to connect the 

island of Lanka to the mainland India to facilitate the army of Lord 

Rama to reach the island to defeat the evil king Ravana and release his 

wife Sita from forced confinement. The exemplary heroic acts with 

immense physical strength made Lord Hanuman a symbol of physical 

strength in Hindu mythology. The deities of Lord Hanuman were always 

exhibit his physical attributes of pure muscles from neck down. Some of 

Lord Hanuman's devotees remain celibate throughout their life time to 

use their physical energy for good deeds. 

Most Hindu deities were adorned with pure silk and valuable 

gold and precious stone jewelry but the deity of Lord Hanuman was 

always bare exposing his humongous muscles painted in scarlet red 

sticky dye characteristic to Lord Hanuman deities. The devotees 

visiting Lord Hanuman temple were offered a small sample of sticky 

scarlet dye to rub against their forehead or neck as a marker for 

others to encourage a visit to Lord Hanuman for blessings. 

The sparsely attended Lord Hanuman temple was only temple in 

Pineappleville with a woman priest Purnima.  Though she was not trained 

in Hindu traditions as a priest, she performed the duties of 

priesthood. In the past, a wealthy immigrant business family brought 

Purnima along from a far distance in north to work in their family home 


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