Reaching Sabarimala is supposed to be as significant as arriving, since pilgrims are expected to spend forty-one days preparing before they ever set out.
Forty-one days first
Pilgrims observe a vratham, a period of austerity lasting forty-one days before the pilgrimage itself, involving abstention from meat, alcohol and other worldly comforts, wearing black or blue clothing, and maintaining strict personal discipline, a preparatory practice treated as inseparable from the pilgrimage rather than as an optional prelude to it.
An eternal celibate
The temple's deity, Ayyappan, is described in tradition as born from a union between Shiva and Mohini, an enchanting female form taken by Vishnu, and is venerated specifically as a Naishtika Brahmachari, a lifelong celibate ascetic. This characterisation of the deity has traditionally been cited as the theological basis for excluding women of menstruating age from the temple, the practice at the centre of the legal dispute covered in this entry's companion article.
A climb, not a drive-up
The temple sits deep in forest terrain reached only by a demanding trek on foot along a traditional route, a physical difficulty that pilgrims frequently describe as part of the vow's fulfilment rather than an incidental obstacle to be minimised, distinguishing the pilgrimage's physical character from more accessible major Hindu temple sites elsewhere in South India.