Their entry was followed by violent protests, many carried out by young men with the backing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which governs India. The Sabarimala row has now engulfed not only Kerala, but the rest of the country. Religious sentiment and political opportunism have kept the issue in the spotlight, where it is likely to remain as the country braces for a parliamentary election this year.

India’s reputation as a brutally patriarchal society isn’t misbegotten, but it ignores how varied the status of women is here. In Kerala, because of early social justice movements and relatively enlightened governance, women have enjoyed freedoms not common elsewhere in the country. Over the 20th century, women in the state had freer access to health care and education than in many parts of India. Some communities had inheritance customs that gave women an unusual amount over control of property and private finances.

But Kerala’s Hindus could also be more rigid and hierarchical than their counterparts elsewhere. The 19th-century reformer Swami Vivekananda called the state a “lunatic asylum” for its humiliating range of caste discriminations.

Sabarimala devotees often pride themselves on having escaped these fetters. The shrine is nominally open to persons of all religions. It is not known to have practiced caste exclusion, and its priests have said they will admit transgender people without a menstrual cycle. While other Ayyappan temples in India admit women of all ages, the faithful say that the exclusion of notionally fertile women is essential to the practices of this one shrine. Some female supporters of the ban even began a campaign called #ReadyToWait — that is, for menopause.