Cite
MLA
“Sabarimala Mandala Yatra.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/yatra/sabarimala-mandala-yatra/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Sabarimala Mandala Yatra. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/yatra/sabarimala-mandala-yatra/
The route
- 1Erumeli
- 2Pampa
- 3Sabarimala Sannidhanam
What defines it
- 01
41-day vratam with mala, black dress and brahmacharya
- 02
Irumudi with a ghee-filled coconut
- 03
Pathinettam padi, the eighteen holy steps
- 04
Thiruvabharanam procession from Pandalam for Makaravilakku
- 05
About 53 lakh pilgrims in 2024–25 (TDB preliminary)
01Forty-one days of vratam
The yatra begins at home. The pilgrim puts on a mala of rudraksha or tulsi from the hands of a guru swami, wears black, blue or saffron, walks barefoot, eats once a day, keeps brahmacharya and calls every other pilgrim ‘Swami’, because for these 41 days each one is Ayyappa. Before leaving, the group fills the irumudi, a cloth bundle with two pockets: in the front a coconut filled with ghee for the abhisheka, in the back food for the road. Only one who carries the irumudi may climb the pathinettam padi, the eighteen steps up to the sanctum. By old custom women between about ten and fifty do not make the climb, since Ayyappa at Sabarimala is worshipped as a naishthika brahmachari.
02Erumeli, the forest and Pandalam
Many groups start at Erumeli, where pilgrims dance the petta thullal with painted faces and also pay respects at the shrine of Vavar, the Muslim companion of Ayyappa in the local tradition, before taking the long forest path over Azhutha and Karimala down to the Pampa river. Others drive to Pampa and climb the last few kilometres to the Sannidhanam. The Pandalam royal family of Kerala, in whose house the tradition says Ayyappa grew up as Manikandan, sends the Thiruvabharanam, the sacred ornaments, in procession for Makaravilakku. When they reach the shrine the Makara Jyothi is seen on the hill of Ponnambalamedu across the valley, and lakhs wait on the slopes for that moment.
03Fire, rebuilding and the crowds
Sabarimala came under the Travancore Devaswom Board when the board was formed in 1949 to run the temples of the old Travancore state. In 1950 a fire badly damaged the shrine and it was rebuilt. Roads, a virtual-queue booking system and spot darshan counters have turned a forest walk of a few thousand into one of the largest annual gatherings in the world. The board’s preliminary estimate for the season from 16 November 2024 to 20 January 2025 was about 53 lakh devotees, and its count for the 2025–26 season had passed 51 lakh by mid-January 2026. In 2018 a Supreme Court ruling on the entry of women set off wide protests by devotees, and the question now rests with a larger bench.
