Rasni Bai
Abstract: The recent controversy surrounding the alleged theft of gold at the Sabarimala temple has largely been discussed as an instance of administrative failure or criminal misconduct. This essay approaches the controversy differently. Rather than investigating the alleged theft itself, it uses the episode as a contemporary point of departure to examine the longer historical processes through which Sabarimala has been shaped by religious, cultural and institutional appropriation. Drawing on folklore, oral traditions, colonial ethnography, and scholarship on Buddhism and indigenous worship in Kerala, the essay argues that the shrine emerged from multiple overlapping religious traditions, including Chathan worship, kaavu traditions, Mala Araya cosmologies, Buddhist influences, and regional guardian-deity practices. These traditions were subsequently reinterpreted, institutionalised and incorporated within a dominant Brahmanical framework. Read in this broader historical context, the contemporary controversy is not simply an isolated event but an opportunity to reconsider enduring processes of ritual transformation, institutional control and material accumulation. The essay therefore invites a sociological reading of Sabarimala as a contested cultural landscape whose history reflects continuing negotiations over religious authority, memory and ownership.
Introduction: The recent controversy surrounding the alleged theft of gold at the Sabarimala temple has largely been interpreted as an episode of administrative failure, corruption or criminal misconduct. While these concerns remain significant, this essay approaches the controversy from a different perspective. It does not seek to establish the circumstances surrounding the alleged theft. Rather, it argues that the controversy provides a useful lens for examining the longer historical processes that have shaped Sabarimala. Read in this way, the debate over gold is less about a single contemporary incident than about enduring questions of religious authority, cultural memory and institutional control.
The essay argues that appropriation at Sabarimala should be understood not merely as the transfer of material resources but as a broader historical process involving the reorganisation of ritual authority, sacred landscapes and systems of religious legitimacy. The accumulation and control of sacred wealth are inseparable from earlier transformations through which indigenous traditions, local ritual practices and alternative religious histories were gradually absorbed, reinterpreted and institutionalised within a dominant Brahmanical framework. The alleged gold theft therefore becomes significant not because it explains this history, but because it draws renewed attention to it.
Rather than proposing a single alternative origin for Sabarimala, this essay situates the shrine within multiple overlapping religious traditions that coexisted and evolved over centuries. These include Chathan and kaavu traditions, Mala Araya cosmologies, Buddhist influences and regional guardian-deity worship. Drawing on folklore, oral traditions, colonial ethnography and interdisciplinary scholarship on religion, caste and Kerala’s cultural history, this essay adopts a historical-sociological reading of Sabarimala as a layered religious landscape. It examines how these traditions were selectively appropriated, sanitised and reconfigured through processes of institutionalisation and religious transformation. Seen in this broader historical context, the contemporary controversy becomes an opportunity to reconsider the historical making of Sabarimala and the continuing negotiations over culture, authority and ownership that define the shrine today.
Conceptualising Appropriation: This essay understands appropriation as a sociological process through which dominant institutions absorb, reinterpret and legitimise existing cultural and religious traditions while simultaneously reshaping their meanings, authority and ownership. Appropriation therefore extends beyond the acquisition of material resources to encompass the reorganisation of ritual practices, sacred spaces and collective memory. As Bourdieu (1991) argues, symbolic power operates through the ability to define what is recognised as legitimate culture and authority, while Gramsci’s (1971) notion of cultural hegemony highlights how dominant groups secure consent by incorporating and transforming subordinate cultural traditions. Rather than viewing Sabarimala through a singular origin narrative, this essay approaches the shrine as a historically layered religious landscape where indigenous, Buddhist and Brahmanical traditions have interacted, competed and been reconfigured over time. The contemporary gold controversy is therefore interpreted not as evidence of a continuous history of theft but as a moment that draws attention to these longer processes of institutionalisation, cultural transformation and contested ownership.
Chathan, Kaavu and the Historical Transformation of Sacred Space
Early Sangam literature and regional traditions do not identify the deity of Sabarimala as Ayyappa or Shastha; instead, they refer to Chathan. As R. Ramanand argues in Kuttichathan Ayyappa Shasthavu, the figure later identified as Shastha represents a Sanskritised transformation of Chathan rather than an entirely distinct deity. Similarities between the narratives of Chathan and later Puranic accounts of Shastha point towards a gradual process through which local religious traditions were translated into Brahmanical idioms rather than abruptly replaced.
This historical transformation extended beyond mythology to the reorganisation of sacred landscapes. Traditions that attribute the establishment of 108 Shastha temples to Parasurama may also be read as reflecting the incorporation of earlier Chathan kaavu traditions into an expanding Brahmanical religious order. These kaavu were not temples in the Agamic sense, but sacred groves centred on trees, rocks and forest clearings that functioned as important ritual spaces for local communities. Ramanand notes that ritual traditions such as Ayyappan Theeyattu continue to preserve the names of many of these sacred groves, suggesting the persistence of earlier ritual geographies beneath later institutional forms.
The transformation of kaavu into temples therefore involved more than architectural change. It also reorganised ritual authority and religious practice. Earlier forms of worship that included bali, kuruthi, alcohol, meat offerings and the central role of the Velichappadu were gradually marginalised or symbolically reinterpreted within a Brahmanical ritual framework. Such changes illustrate how appropriation operates not only through the control of physical space but also through the restructuring of ritual practice and religious legitimacy.
Mala Araya Claims and the Reorganisation of Ritual Authority
The question of appropriation becomes particularly visible in the continuing claims of the Mala Araya community regarding Sabarimala. The very term Malai Arayan, meaning “Monarch of the Hills,” reflects an identity historically associated with custodianship rather than marginality. Oral traditions preserved within the community present Ayyappa not as a Puranic deity but as a figure born to Kandan and Karuthamma, a Mala Araya couple, in a cave at Ponnambalamedu following a forty-one-day vratham. Recorded by P. K. Sajeev of the Aikya Mala Araya Maha Sabha, this narrative locates Ayyappa within an indigenous cosmological framework that differs significantly from later Brahmanical accounts.
Historical records also indicate that the Mala Arayas exercised ritual authority at Sabarimala before their displacement. Samuel Mateer’s Native Life in Travancore documents their association with the shrine, while later administrative changes under the Pandalam rulers culminated in the transfer of ritual authority to the Thazhamon Madom Brahmin family in 1902. This shift represented more than a change in priesthood. It reconfigured the institutional basis of religious authority by replacing indigenous custodianship with hereditary Brahmanical administration.
This process was accompanied by wider transformations in ritual practice. Temples historically associated with the Mala Arayas gradually declined, while ritual practices such as thenabhishekam (honey offering) gave way to neyyabhishekam (ghee offering). Such changes illustrate how institutionalisation altered not only ritual forms but also the communities recognised as legitimate custodians of sacred knowledge. The displacement of the Mala Arayas was therefore simultaneously territorial, ritual and epistemic, limiting their ability to define the shrine’s history and transmit their religious traditions.
Buddhist Traces and Religious Plurality
Another important dimension of Sabarimala’s historical formation concerns its relationship with Buddhism. Archaeological discoveries and historical scholarship have identified Buddhist centres across Kerala, including sites associated with Sabarimala.Dr. S. Ajay Sekhar argue that places including Thottappally, Podiyil Mala, Kodungallur and Sabarimala formed part of wider Buddhist networks of worship, learning and ecological stewardship.
These arguments do not necessarily imply that Sabarimala originated exclusively as a Buddhist shrine. Rather, they suggest that Buddhist institutions coexisted with indigenous religious practices and participated in a shared religious landscape characterised by interaction rather than rigid separation. The association of the Buddhist teacher Padampa Sangye with the Sabarimala region, together with similarities between Buddhist ethical practices and elements of the Ayyappa pilgrimage, including ascetic discipline, temporary suspension of caste distinctions and the invocation of Sharanam Ayyappa, has encouraged scholars to reconsider the multiple religious influences that contributed to the shrine’s historical development.
Understanding these Buddhist traces therefore requires moving beyond singular origin narratives. Instead, Sabarimala can be interpreted as a site shaped through continuous interaction among indigenous, Buddhist and Brahmanical traditions, each contributing to its evolving religious identity.
From Guardian Deity to Institutional Religion
Comparable processes are visible beyond Kerala. In Tamil Nadu, Ayyappa appears as Ayyanar, a village guardian deity traditionally served by non-Brahmin priests and worshipped through ritual practices that differ considerably from contemporary Brahmanical norms. Associated with bhutas and pisachas and receiving non-vegetarian offerings, Ayyanar shares significant continuities with Chathan traditions in Kerala. These similarities suggest that Sabarimala should be situated within a broader South Indian landscape of guardian-deity worship rather than interpreted solely through later Sanskritic traditions.
The institutionalisation of the Makara Jyothi further illustrates the transformation of local religious practice into organised public spectacle. Joseph Edamaruku argues that Makara Jyoti, which is widely perceived as a miraculous celestial phenomenon at Sabarimala, is, in fact, a carefully organised ritual event conducted with the knowledge of state and temple authorities. Whether accepted or contested, this interpretation highlights the sociological significance of institutional mediation in producing and sustaining religious belief. Through repeated performance and administrative support, ritual acquires public legitimacy independent of its historical origins.
The expansion of pilgrimage similarly transformed Sabarimala from a locally embedded sacred landscape into one of South Asia’s largest religious institutions. The growth of pilgrimage infrastructure, temple administration and devotional economy reconfigured the relationship between ritual, authority and material wealth. In this context, the contemporary gold controversy becomes significant not simply as an allegation of corruption but as an occasion to reflect on the historical processes through which sacred resources have been accumulated, administered and contested.
Conclusion: The controversy surrounding the alleged theft of gold at Sabarimala has largely been framed as a question of temple administration or criminal misconduct. This essay has argued that the controversy also provides an opportunity to examine the longer historical processes through which Sabarimala has been shaped by religious, cultural and institutional appropriation. Drawing on folklore, oral traditions, colonial ethnography and interdisciplinary scholarship, it has shown that the shrine emerged through the interaction of multiple religious traditions, including Chathan worship, kaavu traditions, Mala Araya custodianship, Buddhist influences and regional guardian-deity practices. Rather than existing as separate histories, these traditions were progressively reinterpreted and incorporated within a dominant Brahmanical institutional framework, reshaping ritual authority, sacred space and religious legitimacy.
Viewed through this historical-sociological lens, appropriation at Sabarimala extends beyond control over material resources to encompass the transformation of cultural memory, ritual practice, and institutional authority. The contemporary gold controversy, therefore, acquires significance not because it establishes a continuous history of material dispossession, but because it invites renewed attention to the historical processes by which sacred institutions accumulate authority, legitimacy and resources.
Rather than advancing a definitive account of Sabarimala’s origins, this essay invites readers to understand the shrine as a historically layered and contested religious landscape shaped through centuries of interaction, negotiation and institutional transformation. Such a perspective shifts contemporary debates beyond questions of administrative accountability towards broader sociological concerns with power, memory, cultural ownership and the making of religious institutions in South Asia.
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Rasni Bai is a Doctoral Fellow at CHRIST University, Bangalore. Her research interests span social stratification, caste, culture, and folk studies.
