The Sabarimala hill temple in Kerala opened its doors on Thursday afternoon for the five-day pooja during the Kumbham month. According to reports, the temple witnessed heavy rush of devotees.

The hill shrine’s sanctum sanctorum was opened by the temple‘s head priest in the presence of the chief priest, tantri Kandararu Maheswararu Mohanararu and the Devaswom Board officials on Thursday.

The tantri lit the lamp at the beginning on the 18 holy steps, after which devotees were allowed to climb the holy steps to visit the shrine. Thousands of devotees thronged to the shrine on Thursday evening, according to reports.

The five-day pooja will begin on Friday with the tantri performing a Ganapati Homam in the morning.

The temple will close on February 18 evening after concluding all poojas over the five days.

Meanwhile, the issue regarding women’s entry into Sabarimala is pending in the apex court with a nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde formed to consider issues on essential religious practices and rights of worship to women, in a reference made during the hearing of review petitions against entry of women between ages 10-50 into Sabarimala.

While the bench will not decide anything on the Sabarimala review petitions, it will instead deliberate on the ‘larger issues pertaining to the matter’.

The top court also directed lawyers, appearing in cases of women’s rights to worship and gender discrimination in religious sites, to meet on Friday and decide what issues they wanted the court to hear in the next 3 weeks.