With the 40-day Mandala pooja at the Sabarimala temple coming to an end on December 27, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president, A Padmakumar spoke to the media on Wednesday regarding the situation at the temple and the inflow of the devotees this year, stating that there has not been any dip in the numbers this year.
“Initially when the Mandala season began, the number of devotees coming to Sabarimala was very less as compared to previous years’. This led to a lot of rumours about this year witnessing a very low turnout as compared to the previous years,” said Padmakumar, explaining that the numbers later picked up.
Padmakumar stated that some of the TDB presidents before him used to give out exaggerated numbers regarding the number of devotees that visited Sabarimala to make it look like more devotees visited the temple during their tenure than they did in the preceding years.
“We have found out that as of yesterday (Tuesday), more than 30 lakh devotees have visited the Sabarimala temple, whereas the total number of devotees that thronged the temple through the entire last season was about 68 lakhs,” he said.
The TDB president also announced that the amount raised by the Sabarimala temple so far this year amounts to Rs 105 crore, whereas the total amount of money raised by the temple during the previous season was Rs 164 crore. He also stated that the income from offerings per day this year is more than the income from offerings on a single day during previous years.
Responding to allegations that the aravana payasam being sold at the Sabarimala temple was spoilt, Padmakumar said that strict legal action will be taken against those who were spreading such false messages.
“One of the rumour was that the Aravana that was manufactured in August was spoilt. In reality, there was no Aravana production in August because of the floods. After this explanation was given, the rumour died down.”