THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘Kuthiyottam’ ritual, a crucial part of the festival at the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple, started on Friday. This year, 846 boys aged between four and 13 years are taking part.
They have to observe penance and stay on the temple premises until the procession that takes place on the Pongala offering day, March 5, and leave the next day, when the festival concludes. On all these days, temple authorities are in charge of the boys, providing them with food and essentials.
“This year, we had 856 applicants in the beginning. Ten boys backed out citing personal reasons and we have returned the sum they had paid. We have arranged facilities to accommodate all the 846 boys,” said Attukal Devi Temple Trust secretary M Bhaskaran Nair.
The penance has to be observed for seven days, beginning on the third day of the festival. Strict diet restrictions have to be followed during this period. The boys have to take bath in the temple pond. By the tenth day of festival, each one of them should have completed 1008 ‘namaskarams’ (bowing before the deity).
The boys taking part in the ‘Kuthiyottam’ ritual represent the wounded soldiers of goddess Mahishasura Mardini. They have to accompany the procession that moves till the Sastha Temple in Manacaud and return by midnight. The procession, called ‘Purathezhunnellippu’, would have an accompaniment of ‘panchavadyam’, pageantry with art forms, floats and so on.
he festival will come to a close with ‘Guruthi tharpanam’ on March 6.
Four Squads Formed
For the convenience of devotees and public on the sidelines of Attukal Devi temple festival and Attukal Pongala, four squads have been formed by the District Collector. Additional District Magistrate V R Vinod is the coordinator of all four squads.
The squads have the duty to ensure maintenance of law and order, smoking in public places, availability of materials in right quantity and measurement for devotees, quality of the measuring devices and prevention of noise pollution through loud speakers.
P T Sivadas, special Tahsildar of Land Conservatory Unit, Travancore Devaswom Board; T S Nishad, special Tahsildar, LA Airport; D A Thankaraj, senior superintendent, Inspection/Vigilance, Collectorate; and Venugopalan, additional Tahsildar of Thiruvananthapuram Taluk Office, are the squad leaders. They have to report to the coordinator on a daily basis. For the service of police, Fort Assistant Commissioner can be contacted at 9497990009 and Nodal officer A Satheesh Kumar for Food Safety services at 9447862294.
No-Smoking Zone
In the festival zone of Attukal, smoking has been banned in a radius of 500 metre till March 5 taking into account public health. The Additional District Magistrate has ordered not to collect, sell or keep tobacco products in the area during this period.