Image: Bindu and Kanakdurga
The chief priest of Sabarimala temple has ordered the main doors of the famous temple to be shut for 'purification' after reports of two women, below 50, entering the premises and offering prayer early on Wednesday. The Kerala Police said it was looking into media reports that two womenhad entered the Sabarimala temple.
According to TV channels, the two women, Kanakadurga, 42, and Bindu, 44, also claimed that they had entered the holy shrine of Lord Ayyappa. They made efforts to enter the shrine in December but had to return due to protests. As per news reports, the women trekked to the hill shrine early early Wednesday. The video showed them entering the shrine, wearing black clothes, with their heads covered.
Bindu and Kanakdurga entered the holy temple of the Hindu deity Ayyappan and offered prayers at 3:45 am, reported news agency ANI.
The women, in their early 40s, started their climb midnight and reached the temple for darshan before dawn. After offering prayers, they left Sabarimala.The women were accompanied by a small group of police personnel in civil and uniform.
Bindu, a college lecturer and CPI(ML) activist from Kozhikode district's Koyilandy, and Kanakadurga, a civil supplies employee from Angadipuram in Malappuram, had come to Sabarimala on December 24 after 11 women activists of a Chennai-based outfit were prevented from reaching the shrine and chased away by devotees chanting Ayyappa mantras.
None of the two women could be contacted so far.
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In September, the apex court paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple.
Headed by the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, a five-judge constitution bench in its 4:1 verdict said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women.
The CJI said religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity.
