Entry of women has been banned in Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa Temple in Kerala since time immemorial. According to tantric belief, women are not allowed in a celibate god’s shrine. Later, the Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the temple affairs, brought in the rule barring women in the 10-50 age group. Purification rituals are to be held if a woman in the banned age group happens to enter the temple premises. Every year, women in the banned age limit who arrive at the base camp are stopped from visiting the temple. They are provided accommodation at the base camp till their companions return.
The Sabarimala shrine does not deny entry to all women, but only to those in the 10-50 age group. The ban on menstruating women, i.e, those in the 10-50 age group, is owing to the tantric tradition of the temple. The idol here is naishtika brahmachari (meaning a celibate god) which determines the rituals, customs and practices at the shrine.
In 1983, the Kerala High Court had upheld the age-old practice of non-entry of menstruating women to the Sabarimala temple. Justice Paripoornan, in his verdict on a petition filed by a devotee hailing from Pathanamthitta, also fixed the banned age limit as 10-50 age group.
According to mythology, the Lord Ayyappa temples at Sabarimala, Achankovil Aryankavu and Kulathupuzha were built by sage Parasurama. It may be noted that the Sabarimala temple has special norms as the concept of deity here is different from other temples.
The practices at Achankovil and Aryankavu Sastha temples are different as their deities are envisaged as grihasthasrami, which means the deity is present with his consort. At the Kulathupuzha Sastha temple, the god is in his boyhood.
Such debates undermine the greatness of a shrine where people of all religions are allowed to offer worship. The temple upholds the great concept of tatvamasi (you are that), the belief in which all are identified with the god. Quite a few shrines in the world like Sabarimala promote the concept of universal brotherhood, and the present controversy is saddening.
The Travancore Devaswom Board will join party to the Supreme Court case to preserve the temple’s divinity, tradition and believers’ sentiments.
Prayar Gopalakrishnan is President, Travancore Devaswom Board
The Supreme Court is correct in its observation that right to worship cannot be denied to women. Denying the right to worship is against the Constitution. On the other side, there is a view that it is against the rituals, customs and practices envisaged in the tantric sastra.
World history shows us that many times superstitious or evil rituals were wiped out from communities. The progressive society in Kerala got rid of several ritual-turned-evil practices.
The conservationists and upper castes were opposed to the entry of dalits to temples or even its premises. But reformist movements and the subsequent Temple Entry Proclamation changed things for good. Great social reformer Sree Narayana Guru shattered the upper caste domination in Hinduism by installing the idol of Lord Siva at Aruvippuram. Similarly, VT Bhattathiripad heralded a wave of reformist movement in the Namboodiri community by opposing age-old superstitions. Besides a Constitutional issue, the ban at Sabarimala is worrying for the flawed concept of “impurity” associated with menstruation. While scientific community considers ovulation as an amazing human feature that keeps up humanity, it is sad that we still support a primitive practice. If touching blood makes a pilgrim impure, I wonder whether the male pilgrims who meet with minor accidents return without having darshan.
The best way for Hindu women to respond to the ban is to have deep devotion and utmost faith to make the divine presence of Lord Ayyappa possible at their homes. But this doesn't mean that a woman who wish to visit the temple cannot fulfil her wish.
I wish the conservationists shifted their focus from irrelevant concepts of impurities to dangerous ones like polluting the Pampa river and the forests with plastic and human waste. Of late, there are arguments that women are banned from the shrine as there is a risk of sexual harassment during the hard trek to the temple. This is a ridiculous claim which defame none other than the male pilgrims and their penance.
Sarah Joseph is a well-known writer and activist.