Some Sabarimala devotees are gearing to move a review petition against Friday’s Supreme Court order that opened the temple’s doors to all women devotees, amid efforts to unite leaders from all religions against legal interventions in their practices.

“We will move the court in the first week of October,” said Rahul Eswar, a member of the family of Sabarimala priests and president of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena, an organisation of devotees.

“Our main argument is that the deity is celibate and if you destabilise the soul (of the temple), it will affect the temple,” he told a news conference.

The apex court has lifted the centuries-old ban on women in the “menstrual age” (10 to 50 years) entering the hill shrine in Kerala, declaring it unconstitutional.

Prayar Gopalakrishnan, former president of the Travancore Devaswom Board — a state government-appointed autonomous body that manages the shrine — said he would be at the meeting that discusses the filing of a review petition.

“We plan to form a group of the heads of all religions to discuss the review petition,” he said.

Sabarimala thantri (head priest) Kandararu Rajeevaru expressed disappointment at the verdict but said he accepted it. “As far as I am concerned, it is disappointing. I wanted things to go on as before. But I accept the judgment,” he said.

The Kerala government welcomed the verdict, PWD minister G. Sudhakaran calling it “historic” and promising all the amenities for women pilgrims. “This is a verdict that our whole nation can be proud of. We would have to deploy more policewomen and create more facilities to receive women,” he said.

Kadakampally Surendran, minister for temple affairs (Devaswom), too welcomed the verdict but said it was up to the Devaswom Board to implement it. “The government has nothing to do with the implementation. Let the (board) take all the necessary steps; the government will follow them,” he said.

A. Padmakumar, president of the Devaswom Board, which had favoured the retention of the restrictions on women’s entry, said the body always went by the law of the land. “We will implement the order after consulting the government,” he said.

Former actress and Karnataka minister for women and child development, Jayamala, who had sparked controversy by admitting in 2006 that she had entered the temple in 1986 when she was 27, said this was a “historic moment”. Following her confession, Kerala police had booked her for hurting religious sentiments.

“No third party must come in between women and God,” the lone woman minister in the Congress-Janata Dal Secular coalition government said after Friday’s verdict.

But some women were aghast. “It’s a very sad decision,” said Smitha PR from Ready to Wait, a women’s movement against the demand to lift the entry curbs.

“Now Sabarimala will become just like any other temple, and not the rare school of Advaita philosophy that Lord Ayyappa is believed to have established,” she told a news conference.

“The lone school of Advaita philosophy has closed down today with this verdict.”

Malayalam actress Mala Parvathy said she might visit the temple if she felt like it. “I have already been to the temple three times — as a child. I never felt like going there again since the place got crowded,” she told The Telegraph. “I remember Sabarimala as a pristine and peaceful place right in the middle of a forest. But everything has changed because of the rising number of pilgrims. I have always believed that anyone should be free to pray anywhere without restrictions.”

Navya Nair, a younger actress, told a Malayalam channel she would stick to tradition and “enter Sabarimala only when I am otherwise allowed to enter”.

When the wait will end

Women yearning to enter Sabarimala Temple will have to wait for a bit.

Besides the main pilgrimage season, the temple opens for devotees for five days starting on the first day of every Malayalam month. The next Malayalam month begins almost three weeks from now.

“Although the first of the Malayalam month falls on October 18, the temple will be open from the evening puja on October 17 to facilitate the morning puja the following day,”

Travancore Devaswom Board member K.P. Shankardas told The Telegraph on Friday.

The main pilgrimage season is during the 41-day Mandala puja starting November 17 and the 20-day Makara puja that begins on January 1.