Even before the cacophony caused by Thursday’s hartal called by Sabarimala Action Committee against the entry of women in Sabarimala Temple subsided, the Kerala Government claimed late last night that a Sri Lankan woman had entered the sanctum of the temple and offered her prayers.
The CCTV visuals of Sasikala (46), a Sri Lankan woman, accompanied by her family members and escorted by the police, were released by the Kerala Government late Thursday night. But the Thantri (the chief priest) and the head priest denied the claims made by the Government. The Temple authorities did not order any purification ceremony as atonement unlike after the entry of Bindu and Kanakadurga last Wednesday. Police officials said that the Sri Lankan woman had booked on-line for the darshan and she was given the police escort.
The decision of the Thanthri not to press with the purification ceremony is being portrayed as a fall out of the notice issued to him by the Travancore Devaswam Board, the authority that administers the temple, seeking an explanation for Wednesday’s ceremony.
A Padmakumar, president, Travancore Devaswam Board, told reporters on Friday that the Thantri has been asked to furnish an explanation for his action as it amounted to the violation of the September 28 Supreme Court verdict. The president said that the Thantri had informed him about the purification ceremony which he had ordered immediately after the entry of the two middle aged women.
Meanwhile tension is mounting all over Sabarimala as the Makara Vilakku (the Makara Jyothi) festival is fast approaching. The event falls on January 14 and marks the end of the festival season at the shrine. Since the Makara Jyothi draws hundreds of thousands of devotees from all over the country, both the police and the Sabarimala Action Committee are apprehensive of women entering the temple premises.
“If the season passes of without any untoward incident, it is all because of the blessings of Lord Ayyappa,” said a police officer posted at Sabarimala who agreed that the law enforcement agency was having sleepless nights because of the stand- off with the devotees.