Sabarimala devotees can now buy prasadam coupons at bank branches

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 10 (IANS) Devotees can now come with prepaid coupons from the Dhanalakshmi Bank to buy the prasadam of the famous Sabarimala temple here. The temple opens Nov 16 for the festival season.

Kerala Devaswom Minister G. Sudhakaran Monday handed over the first set of coupons to Jayakumar, a senior official of the bank at the Devaswom headquarters here.

The prasadam distributed at the temple includes the mouth watering 'aravana payasam', made of jaggery and rice, and 'unniappam'.

Last season trouble arose when temple authorities ran short of cans to pack the 'aravana payasam'. It had to be given in buckets and vessels which invited a lot of criticism.

This time, pilgrims can walk into any of the 182 branches of the bank across the country and collect their coupons. These can be exchanged for the prasadam at the temple complex on the hilltop.

The festival season at the temple, dedicated to Lord Ayyappa, continues till the third week of January.

The temple is at an altitude of 914 metres above sea level and four kilometre from Pamba in Pathanamthitta district in central Kerala.

Large numbers of pilgrims turn up at the shrine every year on 'Makar jyoti' day on Jan 14. This year a record one million devotees witnessed the 'Makar jyoti' light appear on the horizon in the evening.