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MUMBAI, INDIA July 18, 2002: The next time you visit the Siddhivinayak (Ganesha) temple, Prabhadevi, and the temple guard finds your dress inappropriate for the holy environs, you could be given a lesson in modest dressing and the temple guard will advise you not to wear such clothes the next time you visit there. A guard says, “Many of them could be first-time visitors unaware of the rules. We do not stop them from entering, but we tell them gently not to wear such dresses the next time they are here.” The temple administration has put up a board of requests in Marathi at one of the gates. The temple, consecrated in 1801, is the city’s most popular, with over two hundred thousand devotees on Tuesdays. Lately, it has also become popular with the young, especially college students who seek Ganesha’s blessings for success in exams. Commenting on the restrictions on clothing, Hegde says, “This is a temple, not a picnic spot.” Sharayu Thakur, chairperson of the managing committee, says that most devotees of Siddhivinayak support the dress code. Goregaon resident Aparna Joshi says, “This is a sacred place. The authorities have done right by issuing instructions on dress. Limits of decency must be maintained.”

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