Sabarimala: A day after Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president K Jayakumar said sufficient stock of ‘aravana’ was available at Sabarimala and that daily around 1.5 lakh tins of it were being produced, long queues of devotees were seen at the Lord Ayyappa shrine to collect the ‘prasadam’.
Visuals aired on TV channels showed that nearly a third of the counters distributing the ‘aravana payasam’ were closed, and long lines were in front of the remaining ones.
A pilgrim told media that he had been waiting for two hours to buy one tin of ‘aravana’ and ‘appam’.
‘Aravana’ — a thick, sweet dessert made from red rice, jaggery, ghee, cardamom powder, and ginger powder — and ‘appam’ — a traditional sweet rice cake/fritter made with ingredients like rice and jaggery — are the two primary ‘prasadam’ at the Lord Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala.
“Buying aravana is taking longer than the wait for the darshan of Lord Ayyappa,” the devotee said.
Jayakumar had on Sunday said that there was an opening stock of two lakh tins of ‘aravana’ at Sabarimala and daily 1.5 lakh tins were being produced.
He had also said that there were five vending machines where people can deposit money to collect the aravana tins without having to wait in line.
The TDB president had assured that there would be no shortage of aravana during the upcoming pilgrimage season at the shrine from November 17.
The shrine is currently open from October 18 to 22 for the ‘Thula masam’ puja.
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