Here is our partial response to Prof. Patrick Olivelle's news paper writeup "When did large Hindu temples come into being? Not before 500 AD" that appeared in "The Print" on 17 january.
Our response is not about when large hindu temples were constructed. It is well documented. But it is concerned with the sub heading to the writeup that read "Dharmashastras opposed temple-based religious and ritual activities."
Patrick Olivelle wrote that "Dharmashastras opposed temple-based religious and ritual activities." "They [Dharmashastras] viewed Temples with suspicion and disdain" so on and so forth.
It is a perfect example of deliberate misinterpretation and misrepresentation of Indian culture and textual tradition.
Prof. Olivelle is well read professor. He knows the facts (See his paper Temple in Sanskrit Legal Literature,” in the book Archaeology and Text: Temple in South Asia. ed. H. P. Ray [Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010], pp. 191–204.) He wrote about dharmashastras for his whole life. But wants to mislead the English educated Desi people.
This is a serious matter of concern.
I will write a detailed article on this issue.
Our response here, though I don't appreciate the title of the article given by the editorial of 'The Print'.