History of Sabarimala Temple

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Lord Manikanta

History of Sabarimala Temple

Lord Ayyappa is one of the Southern India’s most revered deities and also known as Dharmasastha, Hariharan, Manikanta, Ayyanar and is worshipped in a number of shrines across India, most famous being the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala.

Sabarimala – A holy place for lakhs of devotees of Lord Ayyapa. Sabarimala is a pilgrim centre located in Kerala, in the Western Ghat Mountain ranges of India. Lord Ayyappa’s temple is situated here in midst of 18 hills and the area is in the Sahya hilly regions of the Kerala in Pathanamthitta District. The temple is situated on a hilltop at a altitude of 1260 m / 4135 ft. above the sea level and surrounded by mountains and dense forest.

There is a shrine of Lord Dharma Sasta (Lord Ayyappa) on the Sabari Hills, at which crores of devotees seek fulfillment, to surrender themselves to the supreme for the reclemtion of all sins and realization of the immortal dharma. Sabarimala is the place believed to be where Lord Ayyappa meditated after killing the powerful deomon, Mahishi. It is one of the most visited pilgrim centres in the world with an estimate 4-5 crores of devotees coming every year to get darshan of their Lord. Sabarimala is the place which is a best example of one where the pilgrims, without any differenciation of caste, creed, position or social status, go with one mind and one dream of having a darshan of the diety at Sannidhanam.

A pilgrimage to the Sabarimala requires a set of austerities (vrithas) to be observed, if we are to be benefited by it. The austerities are basic rules to be strictly adhered, to as otherwise it would be fruitless if your observance of austerities are not perfect.


History of Sabarimala Temple

The legend of Sabarimala states that the King Rajasekhara, a direct descendant of the Pandya dynasty ruled over Pandalam Kingdom and he was childress. Once he was returning from a hunting expedition, he heard a cry of baby in the forest, near the Pamba river and saw the baby. He was in a dilemma whether to take the child with him or not, when a sage appeared there and advised him to take the child home and name him as Manikandan and told the king that when the child attains the age of Twelve, he would come to know about his divine history.

Overjoyed, the king took the child with him to the palace and the queen was very happy in seeing the child and started looking after him. After some years, queen gave birth to a son of her own, but continued to look after Manikanta with same love and affection. The diwan of the kingdom did not like Manikanta and misguided queen and connived with her to fake an illness. As per the instructions the queen faked the illness, and upon instructions from the diwan, the physician advised the king that this illness can be cured only with a tigress milk. Manikanta on hearing this, asked for the permission to go into forest to fetch the tigress milk from the king, though the king was not willing, but reluctantly granted the permission. While going into the forest to get the cure, Manikanta killed Mahishi, who was committing atrocities on Devalok. Thereafter Lord Shiva appeared and directed the devas to accompany Manikanta as tiger and tigresses. Manikanta returned to palace with them, when the King Rajaskehara became aware about the divine incarnation.

Before leaving for devalok, Manikanta blessed King Rajasekhara and after getting a request from the king to construct a temple, so that the Lord can be worshipped, he aimed an arrow in a particular direction and advised the king to construct a temple there. As per the directions, King laid the foundation for the temple at the place, which is known as Sabarimala. The King called Parasurama to carve a figure of Lord Ayyappa, the Dharmasastha and the idol was installed on the pious day of Makara Sankranthi.

The Temple is built in accordance with the instructions of Lord Ayyappa and images of his faithful Vavar and Kadutha Swamy guard the holy 18 steps. The idol of Ayyappa is built of an alloy of five metals called the Panchaloha and is around one and a half feet tall. Earlier, infront of the shrine, there was a homakund where the devotees used to offer coconuts with ghee by burning them and offering to diety, later the the homakund was shifted to a place below the temple. A shrine of Ganapati occupies the portion of south west of the main temple. A small hillock houses Malikappurathamma temple dedicated to Devi and Kadhuthaswamy. Devotees visit this temple to pay their respect and on the left side of the temple has shrines of snake god and goddess – Nagaraja & Nagayakshi. A little distance away from the main temple is Bhasma Kund, a temple tank, where in the devotees take a holy dip in remembrance of Sabari who gave up her life by entering the fire. It is after her the peak has been named as “Sabarimala”

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