The dress code that is strictly followed by the Nallur Kandaswamy temple authorities for men devotees, and lack of flexibility in the timings of the temple apparently came in the way of the plan of Indian diplomats in Sri Lanka to take Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the temple during his visit to Jaffna in March 2015.
Recalling the sequence of events then, A. Natarajan, who was India’s Consul General in Jaffna during 2015-18, in his memoir, From the Village to the Global Stage, which will be launched at a function in Coimbatore shortly, states that it had been planned for Mr. Modi to visit the Nallur temple or the Maviddapuram Kandaswamy temple or the Naguleswaram temple near Kankesanthurai (KKS). But during a meeting that Mr. Natarajan had with the Nallur Devasthanam Executive Officer, Kumaradasa Mappana Mudaliar, the latter told him that “the revolutionary practice of equality has been maintained and it has been carried out to this day by the temple authorities. Therefore, there is no question of any flexibility in the timings of the shrine, and the devotees could enter the shrine only with bare chests.”
