Pilgrims visit Sabarimala temple on opening day of long festive season

The first day of the twomonthlong festival season at the famed Sabarimala temple opened in the wee hours of Saturday with pilgrims thronging the temple for darshan of Lord AyyappaThe temple doors were opened at 3 am by Arun Nampoothiri the chief priest of the temple who has taken charge of the temple for the next one yearThe maximum number allowed for a day 70000 pilgrims have booked online for darshan on SaturdayEvery day only 10000 pilgrims will be allowed darshan through spot booking at the foothills of the temple townThe temple which opened at 3 am will close at 1 pm and open again at 3 pm and then close at 11 pmPilgrims started to arrive from Friday evening and were seen standing in the queue according to the timing of the darshan that they bookedThe officials of the Travancore Devasom Board TDB which manages several temples including Sabarimala in the southern districts of the state have been staying in the temple town for the past few days and on Saturday State Minister of Devasoms V N Vasavan will chair a review meeting at the shrine located at the top of the hillSituated on the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats at an altitude of 914 metres above sea level Sabarimala temple is four kilometres uphill from Pamba in the Pathanamthitta district which is around 100 km from the state capitalThe temple which bars the entry of women who have attained puberty is accessible only on foot from the Pamba River As per practice before setting off to the holy shrine a pilgrim normally undertakes an intense 41day penance where he does not wear footwear wears a black dhoti and sticks to strict vegetarian food Every pilgrim carries on his head lrumudi a prayer kit which contains coconuts which are broken just before climbing the 18 steps and without it no one is allowed to step onto the holy 18 steps at the SannidhanamAlso in this season the TDB has decided to provide free insurance coverage for the pilgrims and through it the kin of any pilgrim who passes away during the pilgrimage will get a sum of Rs 5 lakh and the authorities will also make arrangements for conveying the mortal remains to the pilgrims hometownThis season a record close to 14000 police officials along with volunteers will be on security duty and give a helping hand to the pilgrimsThe parking facility for pilgrims has now been increased to 10000 parking slots besides there will be rate cards in various south Indian languages on display at all the restaurants in and around the temple town The healthcare facilities in and around the temple town will also have stateoftheart facilities for the pilgrimsThe present twomonthlong season will continue till the last week of December and then the shrine closes for a few days and will open again to close in the third week of JanuarySince several years now the temple opens for a few days at the beginning of every Malayalam month for a few daysPreviously the temple was open only for two months starting NovemberAlso ReadKedarnath Dham closes its doors for the winter seasonThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever