Śabarimala: Ayyappa’s virginity, gender equality and conflicts of religious rights in today’s India

Abstract

The article analyzes one of the most controversial clashes over reli- gion in India, namely the conflict around the worship of god Ayyappa in the Śabarimala temple in Kerala. The practice of preventing fertile women from entering the temple has been established and entrenched here, fertility being formally defined as the age between ten and fifty. The practice is due to the fact that Ayyappa in this temple is worshiped as brahmachari, “eternal virgin.” However, within the framework of the same Ayyappa cult in Kerala and partly elsewhere in South India, there are other images of this god, other interpretations and practic- es that allow women of any age to visit the shrines. In September 2018, the Indian Supreme Court ruled the ban for fertile women to be dis- criminatory. Since October 2018, Kerala has been engulfed in waves of protests, clashes between supporters and opponents of the gender re- strictions, which sometimes turn into violent clashes. This paper ana- lyzes the course of these events in the context of both Ayyappa cult and the current challenges of the regulation of religion in India.