Temple authorities in last-ditch talks

After court ruling allowing women entry, board calls for meeting with family of priests at Sabarimala temple

Amid disagreement among Hindu devotees, on whether to permit women to enter the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala, community leaders were making last-minute efforts to try and reach a consensus.

India’s Supreme Court ruled a fortnight ago that women ought not to be barred entry at the temple. The court found that the temple rule violated gender equality, which is enshrined in the constitution of the country.

The Sabarimala temple in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district has been a male preserve until now, and girls and women in the 10-50 age group are barred from pilgrimage at the temple on the ground that they are “impure” owing to their menstrual cycles.

In a last-minute bid to find middle ground, the Travancore Devaswom Board which controls the temple, has called for a meeting of the family of tantrics who conduct priestly duties at the temple, the Ayyappa Seva Sangham and representatives from the erstwhile Pandalam royal family.

These stakeholders will meet with the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) authorities in Thiruvananthapuram on October 16.

TDB president, A. Padmakumar, said the meeting would aim to arrive at a decision that is acceptable to all stakeholders, and that the board did not want the issue of temple entry for women to be politicised.

Massive rallies have been convened by Ayyappa devotees in different parts of the state, over the past week, to protest the apex court ruling.