Guwahati: This pilgrimage season will come to an end on Thursday night with the Guruthi ritual at the Sabarimala Malikappuram temple, which is performed for appeasing the followers of Lord Ayyappa.
There was an extraordinary influx of pilgrims to Sabarimala during the pilgrimage season.
According to the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), no one would be able to enter the Malikappuram after the Guruthi rite, which will be lead by a member of the Kunnakkattu family from Ranni, beyond Thursday’s hill temple hours of 10 p.m. for devotees.
The puja has been performed for the previous three generations by the Kunnakkattu family of Ranni.
The temple will be open the following day at 5 a.m., but only a representative of the Pandalam royal family will be permitted to visit.
As per the statement, this will be followed by the traditional key-handling ceremony in front of the 18 holy stairs and a return trip for the holy jewellery delivered from the Pandalam palace.
Following the Makaravilakku celebration, Sabarimala’s pilgrim footfall significantly decreased and compared to earlier weeks, the vast majority of people who currently visit the temple are from Kerala itself.
Just 66,736 reservations were made for darshan on Tuesday.
According to estimates, during the current season, which started in November last year, around 45 lakh pilgrims visited the shrine.
According to the Travancore Devaswam board, 310.40 crore was the earnings from this season in Sabarimala till 12 January 2023.
The two-month long pilgrimage season got underway on November 17 when the internet portals of the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala were made available to worshippers for the annual Mandalam-Makaravilakku festivities.
More than 2.5 lakh people visited the Lord Ayappa Temple in Sabarimala in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district in the first six days of the pilgrimage season. Over the course of the first six days of this pilgrimage season, 2, 61,874 pilgrims visited Sabarimala.