Another Kannada actress says she visited Sabarimala

Close on the heels of the furore kicked up by actress Jaimala’s confession on touching the idol of Ayyappa, another veteran Kannada actress Girija Lokesh has revealed that she too visited the famed Sabarimala Temple.

Girija Lokesh told a television channel in Bangalore that she took an all-women team, including her daughter, to the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala during 1987 – the same year when Jaimala claimed to have visited the shrine.

“I was 30 to 35 years when I visited the Temple. My mother-in-law and a few women relatives, including my daughter, who was 12 years then, went to the Sabarimala Temple”, she said.

Unlike Jaimala, Girija Lokesh did not speak about entering the sanctum sanctorum of the Temple. “We went as far as everybody goes”, she said. But, Girija Lokesh expressed skepticism over Jaimala’s claim to have entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Temple and touching the feet of the deity.

Girija Lokesh wondered how Jaimala could have entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Temple, which is surrounded by several priests and other devotees.

The veteran actress was also critical about the discriminative practices at the revered shrine. “A state like Kerala, which has a high rate of literacy, should not be having such discriminatory practices against women”, she said.

It remains to be seen how Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the Sabarimala Temple, reacts to Girija Lokesh’s latest revelations on visiting the abode of the celibate deity.