Sabarimala virtual queue booking opens October 29; 80,000 pilgrims a day
By Ishita SenCulture & Heritage Editor, Peepals Sanskriti
File photo: Dhinakar01 (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons
Sabarimala virtual queue booking for the 2026-27 Mandalam-Makaravilakku season opens at 10 am on October 29, with darshan capped at 80,000 pilgrims a day.
What Happened
Sabarimala virtual queue booking for the 2026-27 Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season will open at 10 am on Thursday, October 29, 2026, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has decided. The board, which runs the Lord Ayyappa temple in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district, set a ceiling of 80,000 pilgrims a day for darshan during the season, counting both online and spot bookings. The decision was reported on Tuesday, October 27, after a board meeting.
Key Facts
- Booking opens: 10 am, Thursday, October 29, 2026.
- Booking site: sabarimalaonline.org, the board's official portal. Online booking is free.
- Daily ceiling: 80,000 pilgrims, including spot bookings.
- Online slots by route: 60,000 for the main Nilakkal-Pamba route, 3,000 for the Erumeli forest route and 3,000 for the Vandiperiyar-Sathram route.
- Up to five pilgrims can be included in one booking.
- The board has said it has not authorised any agent or middleman to collect money for bookings.
- The season is the temple's longest: the 41-day Mandalam period followed by the Makaravilakku festival in January.
Why It Matters
Sabarimala is one of the most visited pilgrimage centres in South India. During the Mandalam-Makaravilakku season, devotees from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and beyond climb to the hill shrine after a period of vows. According to tradition, pilgrims observe a vratham, or period of self-discipline, often for 41 days, wearing the mala (a bead necklace), following a simple diet and carrying the irumudi, a two-part bundle of offerings, on the head during the climb.
The virtual queue was introduced to manage these numbers. Instead of waiting for hours at Pamba, the base camp, or on the trekking path, a pilgrim books a date and time slot in advance and receives a pass. The board uses the daily ceiling to keep crowds on the hill path and at the sannidhanam, the temple complex, within what its facilities can safely handle. Crowd pressure has been a concern in recent seasons, and even in the short monthly opening for the Malayalam month of Thulam this October, a state minister flagged gaps in arrangements as numbers reached around 65,000 a day.
The route-wise split matters for pilgrims who choose the traditional forest paths. The Erumeli forest route and the Vandiperiyar-Sathram route each get 3,000 online slots a day. Those who plan to walk these routes need to book under the correct route, since the slots are counted separately.
The board's warning about agents is aimed at a recurring problem: unofficial websites and middlemen offering to "arrange" slots for a fee. The board's own booking is free, and pilgrims are advised to use only the official portal.
| Route | Online slots per day |
|---|---|
| Nilakkal-Pamba | 60,000 |
| Erumeli (forest route) | 3,000 |
| Vandiperiyar-Sathram | 3,000 |
| Overall ceiling, including spot booking | 80,000 |
Impact
Short-term: Pilgrims planning to travel in the opening weeks of the season should be ready to book on October 29, since early slots, especially on weekends and around the Mandala Pooja, tend to fill quickly. Group leaders who bring large parties from other states will need to split their groups into bookings of five or fewer.
Long-term: The ceiling and route-wise quotas show the board's continued move towards a fully planned pilgrimage, where arrivals are spread across days and paths. How well spot booking is handled at the base camps will decide whether pilgrims who arrive without a pass face long waits.
Who is affected: Lakhs of Ayyappa devotees across South India and the diaspora, transport operators and pilgrim groups, traders at Nilakkal, Pamba and Erumeli, and the police and board staff who manage the crowds.
Key Takeaway
Sabarimala virtual queue booking for the 2026-27 season opens free at sabarimalaonline.org at 10 am on October 29, with darshan capped at 80,000 pilgrims a day.
Questions and Answers
When does Sabarimala virtual queue booking open for 2026-27?
The Travancore Devaswom Board says booking for the Mandalam-Makaravilakku season opens at 10 am on Thursday, October 29, 2026, on sabarimalaonline.org.
How many pilgrims can visit Sabarimala each day this season?
The board has set a daily ceiling of 80,000 pilgrims, which includes spot bookings. Online slots are split by route: 60,000 via Nilakkal-Pamba and 3,000 each via the Erumeli and Vandiperiyar-Sathram routes.
Does Sabarimala virtual queue booking cost money?
No. Booking on the official portal is free, and the board says it has not authorised any agent or middleman to collect money for slots.
How many people can be booked together?
Up to five pilgrims can be included in a single booking, so larger groups need to make several bookings.
Disclaimer: Prepared by the Peepals newsroom from publicly available sources with AI assistance. Information is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication and may change. Images may be representative. Not professional advice. Report an error via our contact page.
By Ishita Sen, Culture & Heritage EditorCovers Culture & Heritage and more for Peepals Sanskriti. All stories by Ishita Sen
Ishita Sen is a pen name of the Peepals Global Editorial Team, which researches, fact-checks and publishes every story. The portrait is an illustration.
