Sabarimala Sri Dharmasastha Temple

Deity

Ayyappan (Dharmasastha) in the yogic posture

Where

Pathanamthitta, Kerala · 9.43N 77.08E

Usual hours

Season only: 4 am – 1 pm, 4 pm – 11 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?

Grahas

Sani Guru

Visited for

The forty-one-day vratam, the irumudi and the eighteen steps. Open in Mandala–Makaravilakku (mid-November to mid-January), the first five days of each Malayalam month and Vishu; the vow itself is the parihaaram.

The sthala purana has it that Ayyappan was born of Hari and Hara — of Vishnu in the form of Mohini and of Sivan — and was found as an infant on the bank of the Pampa by the childless king of Pandalam, who brought him up as a prince.

To get him out of the way, the queen is said to have feigned an illness that only a tigress’s milk would cure. The boy went into the forest, killed the demoness Mahishi at Azhutha and came back riding a tigress with her cubs behind. Having shown who he was, he asked for a temple at Sabarimala and went there.

Vavar, remembered as a Muslim companion of Ayyappan, has a mosque at Erumeli on the traditional forest route, and pilgrims stop there. The vow kept before the journey — forty-one days of abstinence, black or blue clothes, the irumudi carried on the head — is the observance rather than anything done at the shrine.

The temple is administered by the Travancore Devaswom Board and is open only during the Mandala–Makaravilakku season from mid-November to mid-January, for the first five days of each Malayalam month, and at Vishu.

Two different things are seen on the evening of Makaravilakku and are often confused. One is a star in the sky; the other is a light that appears three times on the distant hill of Ponnambalamedu. The Devaswom Board has said publicly that the light on the hill is lit by people. Both continue to be watched for by the crowd on the hill.

The entry of women of menstruating age has been the subject of a long public and legal dispute. The practice at the temple has been to restrict it, and the question has been before the Supreme Court; a reader planning a visit should check the position as it stands rather than rely on a page.

The last stretch is a walk of about five kilometres uphill from Pampa through forest, and there is no road to the sannidhanam.

The eighteen steps, the pathinettam padi, are plated in metal and may be climbed only by someone carrying the irumudi. Everyone else uses a side entrance.

The shrine itself is small. The Malikappurathamma temple stands a short distance away and is part of the visit; so is the breaking of coconuts and the pouring of ghee carried up in the irumudi.

Mandala pooja closes the forty-one-day season that begins on the first of Vrischikam. Makaravilakku, at Makara Sankranti in mid-January, is the single largest night.

The shrine also opens for the first five days of each Malayalam month and for Vishu; those are the quiet times to go, and the walk is far easier.

Also called

Sannidhanam, Sabarigiri, Dharmasastha Temple

Reaching it

Pilgrims start from Pampa, which is about 90 km from Kottayam by road through Pathanamthitta. Chengannur and Kottayam are the nearest railway stations, and Kerala State buses run to Pampa in season.

• Malayalapuzha Devi Temple 36.4 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Achankovil Sree Dharma Sastha Temple 38.1 km · Ayyappa
• Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple 45.9 km · Vaishnava
• Chengannur Mahadeva Temple 53 km · Saiva
• Sankara Narayanasamy Temple, Sankarankovil 57.2 km · Saiva
• Sreevallabha Temple, Thiruvalla 57.4 km · Vaishnava

Been to this temple? The things that change — whether the hours on this page were right, whether the sannidhi was open, how long the queue was on a Saturday — are exactly what no printed source keeps current, and what the next person travelling here needs.

• Were the hours right when you went?
• Is anything on this page wrong or out of date?
• A photograph of the gopuram, the tank, or the notice board

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