Sabarimala virtual queue: temple opens 16 November, no spot booking at Pamba

Pilgrims bound for the Ayyappa shrine’s Mandala season are urged to book a Sabarimala virtual queue slot before leaving home. The hilltop temple in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district opens on the evening of Monday, 16 November, and an official release from the Kerala government says there will be no real-time spot booking at Pamba.

Darshan is capped at 80,000 devotees a day for the 2026-27 Mandala-Makaravilakku pilgrimage. Of those, 66,000 come through the online virtual queue and 14,000 through spot booking. Booking opened at 10 am on 29 October and is free on sabarimalaonline.org, the official portal.

Spot passes at transit hubs, not Pamba

Under a Kerala High Court order, spot passes are offered instead at transit-hub counters, with quotas of 10,000 a day at Nilakkal, 2,000 at Erumeli and 2,000 at the Vandiperiyar Sathram. A 31 October notice from the Travancore Devaswom Board, which runs the temple, seeking staff for spot-booking counters also lists Chengannur, the nearest major railhead. Groups driving from Andhra Pradesh or Telangana without online slots must stop at one of these hubs. The board also charges vehicles without FASTag 25% above the normal tariff at Nilakkal parking, a rule in force since the 2024-25 season.

The board is tying Sannidhanam rooms to the queue: only a devotee holding a virtual queue slot can book one, after an OTP check on the registered mobile number, and the slip and an identity document are matched at check-in. It follows complaints that Rs 2,000 rooms were bought in bulk and resold for over Rs 10,000. Such bookings will be cancelled, the board says, and its vigilance wing has widened its inquiry.

Temple hours and aravana

According to the temple’s published Mandala-Makaravilakku timetable, the sanctum opens at 3 am, closes at 1 pm, reopens at 3 pm and shuts after Harivarasanam at 11 pm. Neyyabhishekam, the ghee offering, runs from 3.30 am to 7 am and from 8.30 am to 11 am.

Six QR-code vending machines for aravana prasadam are being set up with South Indian Bank near the Sannidhanam distribution counters, letting devotees pay digitally without queuing. Board president K. Jayakumar said on 24 October that early talks have begun with the postal department on posting aravana to homes when Sannidhanam is crowded.