BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, May 14, 2004: Last week, HPI received two queries regarding the practice of having one’s head shaved at Tirupati temple, specifically asking if the hair was used in religious ritual. This was an unusual question, and we wondered at the time what was behind it. We replied that to our knowledge the hair itself was not used in religious ritual nor offered to the Deity as such, but rather the act of shaving the head was a form of offering or penance, while the discarded hair would be considered impure.
It turns out in today’s New York Times article (“source” above), that there was indeed a reason for the question. The article reads, in part, “Synthetic wigs flew off the shelves yesterday at Yaffa’s Quality Wigs in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn. On the crowded streets of the neighborhood, an increasing number of Orthodox Jewish women were seen wearing cloth head coverings, having left their wigs at home. Sarah Klein, a neighborhood resident, said that until the confusion was cleared up, she would leave the house only if she wore a baglike snood. For thousands of Orthodox women, one of the most fundamental practices of daily life – adhering to the code of modesty that prohibits a public display of their hair after marriage – was thrown into turmoil this week by a ruling from a distant authority. More than 5,700 miles away in Israel, several rabbis issued a ban on wigs made in India from human hair, which is used to make many of the wigs sold in Brooklyn. The rabbis said the hair may have been used in Hindu religious ceremonies, which like other pantheistic practices are considered idolatrous in Orthodox teaching.”
HPI would appreciate expert opinion as to whether the hair shaved off at a Hindu temple could be considered “used in Hindu religious ceremonies” or not. E-mail ar@hindu.org.
A daily summary of world news for Hindus and non-Hindus alike