HINDUS have urged a British luxury brand to apologise and immediately withdraw 'highly inappropriate' perfume named after Hindu deity Hanuman, a statement said.
British brand Boadicea the Victorious launched an £850 Lord Hanuman perfume recently.
Hindu statesman and president of Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed said that inappropriate usage of sacred Hindu deities, concepts, symbols or icons for commercial or other agendas hurt the devotees.
He added that Lord Hanuman was highly revered in Hinduism and he was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be thrown around inappropriately for mercantile greed.
"Luxury fragrance brands should not be in the business of religious appropriation, sacrilege, and ridiculing entire communities. It was deeply trivialising of immensely venerated Hindu deity Lord Hanuman to be portrayed on a perfume label," he said.
"Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion in the world with about 1.2 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivialising it were insensitive."
In Hinduism, Lord Hanuman is known for incredible strength and was a perfect grammarian.
According to the statement, a bottle of Hanuman perfume, described on the company website as a 'scent full of mischievous intent', was priced at £850 (100ml).
Products of Boadicea the Victorious are said to be available at 107 boutique perfumeries and luxury department stores around the world, including in UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Nigeria, Iraq and Sri Lanka.
Its partners include UK luxury department stores Harrods and Selfridges, TSUM Moscow, French department store chain Printemps. It has a boutique in Harrods London.
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