RECENT SC VERDICT AND THE COMMUNISTS LEAD LDF GOVERNMENT : 12. 1. Sabarimala is a Hindu temple complex located at the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, India, considered to be one of the holiest in Hinduism. 2. It is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world with an estimated 17–30 million devotees visiting every year. 3. Some estimates put the number of annual visitors as high as 50 million. 4. The temple is dedicated to the god Ayyappan also known as Dharma Sastha, who according to belief is the son of Shiva and Vishnu. The traditions of Sabarimala are a confluence of Shaivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism, and other Śramaṇa traditions. 5. Maha Vishnu is identical to the formless metaphysical concept called Brahmam, the supreme, the Svayam Bhagavan, who takes various avatars as "the preserver, protector" whenever the world is threatened with evil, chaos, and destructive forces. 6. His avatars most notably include Rama in the Ramayana and Krishna in the Mahabharata. He is also known as Narayana, Jagannath, Vasudeva, Vithoba, and Hari. He is one of the five equivalent deities worshipped in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta Tradition of Hinduism. 7. Maha Vishnu is a Vedic deity, Just 5 out of 1028 hymns of the Rigveda, a 2nd millennium BCE Hindu text, are dedicated to Vishnu, and he finds minor mention in the other hymns. Vishnu is mentioned in the Brahmana layer of text in the Vedas, thereafter his profile rises and over the history of Indian mythology, states Jan Gonda, Vishnu becomes a divinity of the highest rank, one equivalent to the Supreme Being.
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