The eighteen steps

പതിനെട്ടാംപടി

At Sabarimala the eighteen steps to the shrine may only be climbed by someone carrying the irumudi — the two-part head bundle that shows the forty-one day austerity has been kept. Everyone else takes a different route to darshan.

Before you take this on

  • Cardiac events are the documented danger here, not the steps. A state health advisory asks those with hypertension, diabetes, heart disease or asthma to consult a doctor first, and those with a family cardiac history to have their heart checked; it advises climbing slowly with rests, and going to the nearest medical centre on fatigue or chest pain. Press reporting of the advisory gives roughly 150 cardiac events a season with around forty deaths.
  • Amoebic meningoencephalitis has been linked to bathing in the Pampa. Pilgrims are advised to pinch the nose or use a clip when dipping, and to seek care immediately for fever, severe headache, nausea, vomiting, neck stiffness or confusion.
  • The state runs dedicated cardiac centres along the route, which tells you how common the problem is.

What you do

  1. Keep the vratham for forty-one days — one mandala.
  2. Wear black for the duration; the colour marks detachment from material things.
  3. Do not cut your hair, shave, or cut your nails while the vow runs.
  4. Prepare the irumudi kettu, a bundle with two compartments. The front holds the ghee-filled coconut and the offerings for Ayyappa; the rear holds coconuts to be broken at the holy places along the way.
  5. Carry it on your head. Only those carrying it may climb the eighteen steps.
  6. If you are not carrying an irumudi, take the separate route to darshan instead.

Before you start

  • The forty-one day vratham.
  • The irumudi kettu, without which the steps are closed to you.
  • Black dress, and no grooming for the duration of the vow.

Why it is done

More than one account explains this custom. They are given separately because they are separate — merging them into one story would invent a consensus that does not exist.

Kerala Tourism, on the temple's founding

Ayyappa is said to have asked his earthly father, the king of Pandalam, to build him a temple with eighteen steps.

What the eighteen stand for — several readings, given as alternatives

The same government source sets out incompatible glosses side by side rather than choosing: eight jeevathmas plus ten paramathmas; or five senses, six states and seven bodily constituents; or the eighteen worlds, or the eighteen Puranas, or the eighteen weapons Ayyappa is said to have used. They are alternatives, not a single doctrine, and are not reconciled here. A further reading in circulation — the first five steps as the senses, the next eight as the passions, the next three as the gunas, the last two as knowledge and ignorance — was found only on devotional sites with no attribution.

  • Government: Kerala Tourism, Pathinettampadi — listing the alternative interpretations of the number keralatourism.org · seen 2026-09-18

Put simply

There are eighteen steps up to the shrine, and you are only allowed to climb them if you have kept a forty-one day vow and are carrying the bundle that proves it.

Where it is observed

Sources

  • Government: Government of Kerala, Sabarimala portal — rituals, the mandala vratham, the irumudi kettu and the rule restricting the eighteen steps to those carrying it sabarimala.kerala.gov.in · seen 2026-09-18
  • Government: Government of Kerala, Sabarimala portal — offering rates. Page carries no date. sabarimala.kerala.gov.in · seen 2026-09-18
  • Press: ETV Bharat, health advisory issued for Sabarimala pilgrims, November 2024 — press reporting of a state health department advisory not reached directly etvbharat.com · seen 2026-09-18

All practices