Compiled by BENJAMIN LEE, C.ARUNO and R.ARAVINTAN
A 100-year-old woman in India has finally fulfilled her dream of completing the pilgrimage to one of the most popular Hindu temples in the country, Makkal Osai reported.
Parudiamma completed the pilgrimage to the Sabarimala Sree Ayyappan Temple in Kerala state with three generations of her family.
Her grandson, great-grandson, and two great-granddaughters accompanied her on the journey which started on Dec 2.
For a long time, the temple had remained off limits to women as traditionalists claimed this prohibition stemmed from the belief that the presiding deity in Sabarimala practised celibacy.
A 1991 Kerala state Supreme Court decision limited the prohibition to women of “reproductive age” but it was generally still frowned upon for any women to visit. In 2018, the Indian Supreme Court deemed this unconstitutional and allowed entry to women of all ages.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
