KOCHI/THRISSUR : Brandishing ceremonial swords and singing scurrilous songs (theripattu), thousands of ‘komarangal’ (oracles) are heading to the Kodungallur Bhagavathy temple for the renowned ‘Aswathy Kavu Theendal’ ceremony scheduled on Tuesday.Also known as ‘polluting the temple’, the ceremony is overseen by the Kodungallur king and will mark the conclusion of its seven-day festivities. On Tuesday, komarangal from various parts of the state, especially North Kerala, will gather at the temple and move around it in a trance, singing obscene songs and brandishing the swords in the air.
Others in the entourage will charge the temple rafters with sticks and hurl objects over the roof and into the inner quadrangle to ‘pollute the temple.’ The head of the royal family of the erstwhile Kodungallur Kovilakam, who is also the temple’s patron, permits polluting the temple as part of an age-old custom by unfurling a red ceremonial umbrella over the king’s head at the latter’s platform in the afternoon. Prior to the ritual, the ‘thrichandana charthu’ puja will be held.
‘Revathy vilakkukal’, lamps lit on the day of Revathy in the local almanac, were lit on Monday on the eve of the ceremony. The seven-day festival, which began with the symbolic covering of the cock-stone, is said to be an assertion of Dalit identity. The shrine is believed to be a memorial built by a Chera king to Kannaki, the heroine of Ilamkovadigal’s Tamil classic ‘Silappathikaram’.