Kochi: Two women in their 40s means having mensurational age claimed on Wednesday that they visited at the Lord Ayyappa hilly shrine in Sabarimala . With this they became the first female pilgrims of menstruating age to have achieved the feat after the Supreme Court overturned a decade old traditional ban on women's entry last year.
The women Bindu aged 42 is a CPI(ML) activist from Koyilandy in Kozhikode district, and Kanakadurga aged 44 a civil supplies employee from Angadipuram in Malappuram stated that they started climbing the steps to Lord Ayyappa shrine around midnight and arrived in the temple at 3:45 am for darshan. The duo also released a video of their visit to the temple.
Watch the video here -
"We arrived at Pamba around midnight and proceeded without police protection. We reached Sannidhanam and climbed the sacred stairs. We did not face any protests from any quarters. Devotees were present there but they did not block our way or questioned us," Kanakadurga stated CNN-News18.
It is noted that Police are yet to formally confirm if the two women prayed at the temple.
Worth mention here the women had last year also attempted to hike to Sannidhanam, but were forced to return due to protests. Eleven other women activists of a Chennai-based outfit were protected from reaching the place of pilgrimage and chased away by devotees chanting Ayyappa mantras.
#WATCH Two women devotees Bindu and Kanakdurga entered & offered prayers at Kerala's #SabarimalaTemple at 3.45am today pic.twitter.com/hXDWcUTVXA
— ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2019