GURUVAYUR: The 10-day annual festival at the Sreekrishna temple here will conclude with the ‘aarattu’ and the ‘kodiyirakkam’ rituals on Monday. The kulapradikshanam and the gramabali rituals were performed on Sunday evening.
The ‘utsava thidambu’ attached to the swarnakolam was mounted on Gajasamrat Guruvayur Valiyakesavan accompanied by four tuskers at East gopuram for procession around the temple pond. Nagaswaram and melam accompanied the colourful procession.
A large number of devotees witnessed the purathekku ezhunnellippu. The pallivetta ritual was also performed after the kulapradikshnam in the night.
Hundreds of devotees dressed up as animals and birds participated in the pallive t t a . Temple ooralan Mallissery Parameswaran Namboothirippad, administator V Ratheesan, along with deputy administrator P V Somasundaram monitored the arrangements for the purathekku ezhunnellippu.
A heavy police force led by DySPs T K Thomas and V Radhakrishnan and CIs S Abhilash and K V Prabhakaran supervised the security arrangements for the procession and controlled the heavy flow of devotees. The temple will be opened for darshan only at 7 am instead of the usual 3 am owing to the pallivetta ritual on Sunday night
Heavy rush
The temple here witnessed heavy rush of devotees on the first day of the Malayalam month of Meenam on Sunday.
National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, accompanied by IB additional director Gopalakrishnan, joint director H S Verma and former Kerala DGP Venkitachalam offered prayers at the temple during the nirmalyam.
Narayanan, who arrived here on Saturday night, was received by devaswom administrator V Ratheesan, Thrissur range IG of police P Vijayanad and Thrissur SP M P Dinesh at the Sreevalsam guest house. Narayanan also held discussions with DGP Jacob Punnose on Saturday night.