Source: sify.com
INDIA, July 17, 2010: A controversy has broken out in Kerala’s famed Sabarimala temple over a court suggestion to consider widening of the temple’s 18 holy steps as well as the door to the sanctum sanctorum to allow pilgrims easier access. The head priest of the temple and a vastu expert, among others, have opposed any attempt to tinker with the temple’s original structure.
The Kerala High Court’s observations were made while considering a report submitted by the Special Commissioner of Sabarimala stating that many devotees were injured during the last festival season. The court also suggested erecting a conveyor belt to make darshan easy for the devotees.
Pilgrims have to wait for several hours before they get a chance to climb the hallowed 18 steps which lead to the sanctum sanctorum and get darshan of Lord Ayyappa.
Veteran temple vastu expert Cheruvalli Narayanan Nampoothiri said that under no circumstances would it be possible to make any changes in the basic structure of any temple according to the norms of temple vastu. “Changes just cannot take place in the basic structure. And since the Lord is installed inside no part of the sanctum sanctorum can be altered or reshaped,” said Nampoothiri.
General secretary of Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sangham, N. Sreenivasan, criticised the court’s suggestions saying they would hurt the sentiments of millions of believers. “Each of the 18 holy steps represent the hill Gods of Lord Ayyappa and it is impossible to widen the doors of the sanctorum of the temple for convenience of the pilgrims,” said Sreenivasan.