Despite crores website still a dream….

Sabarimala Temple

As more and more religious administrations are planning to be public-friendly by novel methods of publicity, including launching of websites, a world-renowned hill temple the income of which runs into crores a year is crying for a website.

Raghuram Shankar, 34, a pilgrim from Andhra Pradesh, wanted to visit the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. When the tech-savvy pilgrim searched the Internet for hours, he realised to his horror that there was no authentic website on the temple. Raghuram is the representative of millions of people who have been trying to collect authentic details of the temple.

“Though there are several websites in the names of Sabarimala and the Lord Ayyappa, they do not contain authentic information and these websites are being used as a brand for making money. The domain www.sabarimala.com and www.sabarimala.org are owned by World Viewer Dot Com (India) Pvt Ltd, which is headquartered in Kochi. Besides, www.sabarimala.org.in, www.sabarimalaayyappan.com are also not active,” says Rahul Easwar, grandson of Sabarimala Thantri Kandararu Maheswararu and social activist.

However, the Travancore Devaswom Board which administers most of the temples in the south and the central Kerala does not have an active website now. The TDB website www.travancoredevaswom.org is down for the last two years.

A technical expert who wants to remain anonymous said that the domain name www.travancoredevaswom.org is owned by the TDB. But it was created only on March 23, 2006. ``The site was last updated on March 23, 2009, but it remains inactive. If the TDB does not renew the domain before the expiry date of March 23, 2010, the people who are interested can buy it,” he said.

“It’s shameful. We had alerted the TDB authorities on the need of a website for Sabarimala. But the response from the authorities was lukewarm. At that time Forbes magazine had listed Sabarimala in world's 10 most popular religious pilgrim centres in their travel magazine - Forbes traveler. And I got a request from them to create a website. Hence I started a website www.sabarimalasannidhanam.in with the support of well-wishers with a mission that this temple should not miss another chance to be in the world chart,” says Rahul.


Shashikumar Nair, managing director of Sabari Group located at Chennai, said that an official website is must for a temple like Sabarimala and it should be created at the earliest.

“It’s the need of the hour. Nowadays even small temples have their own websites. Though I had alerted the TDB officials, nothing happened. There are people who are willing to sponsor the website for their favourite deity. But the concerned administration should take effective steps to make this real,” he said.

Shashikumar, a devotee of Lord Ayyappa, has been visiting Sabarimala for the last 22 years consecutively.


When contacted K.Jayakumar, Devaswom Commissioner, he said plans for launching an official website for Sabarimala is progressing. “We have registered the domain and will speed up the remaining works.”


Moreover, owing to the negligence of the TDB officials the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala has lost the opportunity of being listed in the Guinness Book of Records! Though I had given all the necessary new paper cuttings and video footages to the then Devaswom Board officials on December 11, 2007, till now they have not sent the application to the Guinness, Rahul said.


Read this report at -

http://www.merinews.com/article/despite-crores-website-still-a-dream/15793617.shtml.