Amid tight security, thousands of devotees offered prayers at the Lord Ayyappa temple when it opened for the annual Mandala-Makaravilakku puja on Saturday, though police said ten women were sent back from Pamba base as they were in the “barred” age group.
The temple has reopened just days after a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court referred to a larger Bench the matter related to entry of women into the hill temple and other issues related to various faiths.
The State and temple precincts had witnessed protests by right-wing outfits and BJP workers last year after the LDF Government had decided to implement the Supreme Court verdict of September 28, 2018, allowing women of all age groups to offer prayers at the shrine.
Though the apex court did not stay its earlier order allowing entry of women in the Lord Ayyappa temple, the LDF Government in Kerala this time said the shrine is not a ground for activism and made it clear that it would not encourage women who want to visit the temple for publicity.
Police on Saturday evening said at least ten women, who were part of a 30-member group from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, were sent back from Pamba, five km from the shrine, as they were found to be in the age group of 10-50 years.
Females in this age group have traditionally been barred from praying at the temple.
“We checked their identity cards and found that they were in the barred age group and informed them about the current situation in Sabarimala. They did not proceed further,” a police official said.
Early this year, two women in the barred age group-- Bindhu and Kanakadurga — had trekked the holy hills and offered prayers at the shrine, scripting history on January 2.
However, Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has said those who want to visit the temple can procure a court order to enter the temple. At 5 pm on Saturday, Kandararu Mahesh Mohanararu opened the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, located in a reserve forest of the Western Ghats in Pathanamthitta district of the state, and performed the pooja.
The devotees from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and other neighbouring States, who were allowed to trek the hill from 2 pm, climbed the sacred 18 steps to the temple with the “irumudikettu” (sacred bag containing the offerings to the Lord) after the priests performed the “padipooja”.
While AK Sudheer Namboodiri took charge as Sabarimala melshanti (chief priest), MS Parameswaran Namboodiri who was to take charge as priest of the Malikappuram Devi Temple could not do so following a death in his family.
