Members of the Dave Gode community in Rajasthan, who take pride in calling themselves the ‘descendants’ of Ravan, were in for a rude shock on Thursday, when the state Government banned devotees from worshipping the demon king on Thursday. The community was not allowed to perform the pran pratishta puja at the newly-built and only Ravan temple in the state after objection from the local saffron brigade.

For over a year now the Dave Goda community members in Jodhpur have been talking about building a ‘Ravan Temple’ in this desert city. The community already had a small space in a Shiv Temple, dedicated for Ravan, where regular pooja was being performed for over a decade now.

Last year, the community announced that the temple would be renovated and an order for a six-foot statue of Ravan was placed. The statue was installed in the temple a month ago but the pran pratishta puja was to be held on Thursday, on the occasion of sharad poornima.

But Jodhpur District Collector’s office issued an order on Wednesday banning the pooja. “Officials from the District Collector’s office came to us and said we cannot go ahead as we had sought no permission. We had never heard that one needs to take a permission for such a thing,” said Ajay Dave, head priest at the temple.

The officials also informed the temple priests that worship of Ravan was to be discontinued as they did not take permission before installing the statue.

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