The first day of the two-month-long festival season at the famed Sabarimala temple opened in the wee hours of Saturday, with pilgrims thronging the temple for darshan of Lord Ayyappa. The temple doors were opened at 3 a.m. by Arun Nampoothiri, the chief priest of the temple who has taken charge of the temple for the next one year.

The maximum number allowed for a day (70,000 pilgrims) have booked online for darshan on Saturday. Every day only 10,000 pilgrims will be allowed darshan through spot booking at the foothills of the temple town. The temple which opened at 3 a.m will close at 1 p.m. and open again at 3 p.m. and then close at 11 p.m.

Pilgrims started to arrive from Friday evening and were seen standing in the queue according to the timing of the darshan that they booked. The 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 hill.

Situated 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 capital.

The 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 41-day 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 ‘Sannidhanam’.

Also 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 pilgrim’s hometown.

This season, a record close to 14,000 police officials, along with volunteers, will be on security duty and give a helping hand to the pilgrims.

The parking facility for pilgrims has now been increased to 10,000 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 state-of-the-art facilities for the pilgrims.

The present two-month-long 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 January.

Since several years now, the temple opens for a few days at the beginning of every Malayalam month for a few days. Previously, the temple was open only for two months starting November.

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)