{"id":11669,"date":"2006-07-29T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-29T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2006\/07\/29\/villagers-resist-age-old-taboo-and-build-a-temple\/"},"modified":"2006-07-29T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-07-29T12:00:00","slug":"villagers-resist-age-old-taboo-and-build-a-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2006\/07\/29\/villagers-resist-age-old-taboo-and-build-a-temple\/","title":{"rendered":"Villagers Resist Age-Old Taboo and Build a Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"source\"><a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.dailyindia.com\/show\/45741.php\/Orissa_Dalits_break_age-old_taboo\">www.dailyindia.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"summary\">KENDRAPADA, INDIA, July 26, 2006:  The Dalits (&#8220;Untoucables&#8221;) in this Orissa district have broken through age-old restrictions and built their own temple. Called Maa Mangal, the shrine is situated in Churiberhampur, a Dalit-dominated village.  For three years they collected donations from among themselves and friends and relatives in other villages to complete their temple. &#8220;I am happy that my dream has come true. Now I can worship God inside a temple with all the rituals,&#8221; said 85-year-old Rama Naik. &#8220;God is everywhere; one does not need to go to a temple to pray. But one gets satisfaction by worshiping him in a temple,&#8221; he said. Said Manguli Naik, another Dalit: &#8220;We were not allowed into temples to perform any rituals on any occasion. Once my two-year-old daughter fell sick and did not respond to medicines. We wanted to put an &#8216;Akhand Diyaa&#8217; in front of the idol for her quick recovery. We urged the priest, but the upper castes did not allow us to enter the temple. Then I had to go to another village where people didn&#8217;t recognize me. I had to change my name and title to visit a temple and pray for my daughter. Till today I can&#8217;t forget that moment.&#8221; Anadi Naik added, &#8220;When some of our youngsters wanted to construct a temple in the past, the elders turned down the suggestion.&#8221; &#8220;We used to pray to God standing outside the existing temple,&#8221; explained Minati Naik. Now my family attends puja every day. I am glad that at least the next generation won&#8217;t be deprived of their right to worship God,&#8221; he said. A brahmin priest has been hired to conduct the worship in the temple.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>www.dailyindia.com KENDRAPADA, INDIA, July 26, 2006: The Dalits (&#8220;Untoucables&#8221;) in this Orissa district have broken through age-old restrictions and built,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}