At the Richmond Murugan temple, H.Sharma shakes his head in disbelief and wonders when this outrage is going to stop.

First it was Hindu icons on slippers. Then it was a Hindu diety on toilet seats.

Now it is the image of the revered Hindu Gods on bikinis and women?s underwear.

?This is outrageous?how dare they do this,? fumed Sharma, a Hindu priest.

This hurts all Hindus all over the world,? said Sharma adding his voice to a global chorus of outrage against Italian designer Roberto Cavalli.

Cavalli has pulled the blasphemous bikinis and is said to be shocked by the furore he has caused.

Apologising for the designs and claiming the situation had arisen from an ?innocent mistake?, his rep said he was ?passionate about India?.

We obviously didn?t realise this would cause offence,? he said.

According to another Cavalli spokesperson in Milan, the designer had wanted to ?celebrate Hindu culture, and not to denigrate it?.

K.Siva does not buy that.

The Hindu public relations consultant said that designers who think they can get away with putting images of gods that millions pray to on bikinis and slippers are just plain ignorant.

?As an Italian and most likely from a Catholic background, I wonder if he would have even considered putting a saint or the image of Mother Mary on a bikini,? he said.

Hindu Human Rights in a letter to Harrods in London said the garments, created by Cavalli, insulted the religion.

London?s Harrods department store immediately apologised to its customers for selling the controversial underwear bearing images of Hindu gods.

The store said: ?We apologise to those customers who have been offended or distressed by the situation.?

In a letter to Harrod?s boss Mohammed Al- Fayed the Hindu Human Rights said:

?Just imagine if similar use was made of images revered by other religious populace-in fact we do not think Roberto Cavalli would not dare to do so since he would fear to hurt the feelings of these communities and to invite severe retaliation.

By displaying and selling such clothing gear Harrods should not condone such brazen and wanton plundering of the culture and religious beliefs of the Hindu community by profit hungry companies and fashion designers such as Roberto Cavalli.?

?When we heard that Harrods was selling such garments, we registered our protest.

We cannot bear the insult to our religion,? said Hindu Human Rights spokesperson Sheila Church.

?Our gods are revered by millions of Hindus. How can somebody use them for such purposes?

We sent Harrods a large number of signatures protesting against it.?

The summer range has been on sale for some time but the controversy started recently in London recently when an Indian human resources executive, Amitabh Soni, saw mannequins bearing the brightly coloured and contentious bikinis in Harrods.

Controversies relating to Hindu icons are not new.

Hindu Human Rights is also protesting against the new film by Ismail Merchant, Shakti, in which rock singer Tina Turner plays the role of goddess Kali.

Last year another department store had to apologise for selling toilet seats with images of a Hindu deity.

Selling slippers with Hindu symbols created trouble for retailers in America.