Here is a different account from that of Marxist historians. Given a
choice I am inclined to believe locals about their history than so
called experts. - Viji


http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/nov/29flip.htm

T V R Shenoy

November 29, 2006
Some months ago, I recall a North Indian lady talking about the
cultural differences she experienced when in South India. Visiting
relatives posted in Kerala, she made a pilgrimage to the famed Shri
Krishna shrine in Guruvayur. Upon entering the temple she devoutly
covered her head -- only to be sternly reprimanded by a priest who
told her that this was against Hindu conventions.

The temple guardians at Guruvayur were quite right. I don't know how
many readers would have stepped into the National Museum in Delhi
(sadly ignored by most visitors to the capital). The wealth of
treasures in the museum is so great that it has actually spilled out
into the lobby. One of the first pieces of sculpture you can see --
before coming even to the ticket office -- is a marvellous statue of
the goddess Saraswati, from the Chauhan period as I recall.

The goddess of wisdom is portrayed without any covering on her head.
So are depictions from thousands of years of Indian history, from the
dawn of civilisation on the banks of the Sindhu through the Mauryas,
the Guptas, and other dynasties. But as time passes -- and you enter
the galleries showing Rajput miniatures from later periods -- the
veil makes its appearance, until even Adishakti Parvati has her face
partly covered.

It is, literally, a graphic demonstration of West Asian cultural
mores replacing those that were native to India. South India,
shielded by the arms of everyone from the imperial Chalukyas in the
eighth century to Vijayanagara and the Marathas, retained the ancient
cultural traditions. And so it was that a Rajput lady found that the
act of covering her head, perfectly acceptable in Mathura, was
frowned upon in Guruvayur.

It is not my intention to revisit the debate over the wearing of
the 'niqab', the face veil that has been identified exclusively with
Muslim women. The niqab is not as important in itself as for what it
symbolises -- a mark that deliberately, even defiantly, proclaims
that its wearer stands apart from society as a whole.