Shabari Malai

Temple and sacred site (tirtha) in the
hills of the southern state of Kerala,
about seventy miles north of Trivandrum. Shabari Malai is renowned for the
temple to Aiyappa, a regional divinity
who has been assimilated into the larger
pantheon as the son of the gods Vishnu
and Shiva; he is born when Vishnu takes
the form of the enchantress Mohini.
Shabari Malai’s annual month-long pilgrimage occurs from the middle of
December to the middle of January, with
the exact dates determined by astrological calculations.
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Seven Sacred Cities
This pilgrimage is most often taken
by men, since, according to the charter
myth, the site is forbidden to women
of childbearing age. The pilgrimage
itself is a highly structured ritual
process. Pilgrims carry out their spiritual training for the journey in welldefined village groups, each headed by
a local leader, who supervises their
strict religious discipline. Their
preparatory vows commence forty-five
to sixty days before the actual journey
begins, and entail strict celibacy and
avoiding the company of women, distinctive dress, a ban on shaving and
wearing shoes, a strict vegetarian diet,
daily worship, and the erasing of all
social and status distinctions among
members. In essence, the men training
for this pilgrimage live as renunciant
ascetics for this period and later revert
to their normal identities. The pilgrimage itself is an arduous and exhausting
journey over the twisted ridges of the
Periyar Hills, during which pilgrims
symbolically divest themselves of their
egos, to be filled with the grace of God.
For a first person account of the
Shabari Malai pilgrimage, see E.
Valentine Daniel, Fluid Signs, 1984.