Temple Entry Proclamation of Travancore, 12 November 1936

The Temple Entry Proclamation of Travancore, issued by Maharaja Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma on 12 November 1936, is a primary legal document opening Hindu temples in the princely state of Travancore to previously excluded lower-caste Hindus, a landmark act of caste reform issued by royal decree. As primary text its authority for what the proclamation actually said and when it was issued is direct. What the document itself cannot supply is its full social context and contested reception, since the proclamation was the product of sustained political pressure, including from reformers like Mannath Padmanabhan, and its practical implementation across individual temples was uneven and itself debated at the time, details that require the broader historical literature on the Travancore temple entry movement to fill in.