Kerala TDB Cancels Temple Name Change Decision Aimed at Preventing Women's Entry in Sabarimala

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has cancelled a decision taken in October 2016 to change the name of the famous Sabarimala temple to Sree Ayyappa Swami Temple. The Board has restored the old name – the Sabarimala Sree Dharma Sastha Temple.

The new decision was taken by the TDB, which administers the temple, at a Board meeting held at its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

The Sabarimala temple was known for long by the name Sree Dhama Sastha Temple, but the previous board led by the then President Prayar Gopalakrishnan had changed the name without informing the State government. The name-change move was apparently aimed at scuttling the efforts to facilitate women's entry at the temple, and went against the stand taken by the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of Kerala. Prayar Gopalakrishnan was appointed to the post of TDB President by the previous Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government.

Women of the 10-50 age group (those in the menstruating age) are currently not allowed entry in the Sabarimala temple, and a case in the Supreme Court in this regard was referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench in October 2017.

The LDF government which was in power during 2006-11 had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2007 supporting women's entry in the temple. But the UDF which came to power in 2011 took a stand to the contrary. The UDF government filed an affidavit in February 2016 opposing women's entry at Sabarimala.

The LDF came back to power in May 2016, and Kadakampally Surendran, who took charge of the Devaswom Ministry, reiterated the LDF's support to women's entry at the temple. He said that the LDF government stands by the affidavit which was filed in November 2007.

CPI(M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan also said that the CPI(M) is in favour of women's entry in all temples.

But the UDF-appointed TDB was still in place, and took a stand opposed to that of the government.

On 5 October 2016, the TDB decided to change the name of the Sabarimala temple to Sree Ayyappa Swami Temple. This was apparently done to weaken the efforts to facilitate women's entry at the temple. Women are allowed entry in most of the Dharma Sastha temples, and renaming the Sabarimala temple was aimed at advancing the claim that the latter's rules are fundamentally different and that therefore the ban on women's entry was justified.

In the three-member TDB, President Prayar Gopalakrishnan (a former Congress MLA) and Congress leader Ajay Tharayil pushed the move to change the name of the temple, overruling the objections raised by K Raghavan, the third member. The government, however, opposed the decision.

On 6 November 2016, the Kerala government told the Supreme Court that it is going by the original affidavit of November 2007. Women of all ages should be allowed to enter the Sabarimala temple and worship, the government said.

Subsequently the State government issued an ordinance reducing the term of the Travancore Devaswom Board members from three to two years. The tenure of Prayar Gopalakrishnan and Ajay Tharayil ended in November 2017, paving the way for the appointment of former CPI(M) MLA A Padmakumar as President and CPI leader KP Sankaradas as member.

Ajay Tharayil and other right-wing commentators like Rahul Easwar have come out with statements opposing the latest decision of the Devaswom Board.

The TDB move to restore the temple’s old name is expected to strengthen the case in favour of women's entry in Sabarimala.