On the day of ‘Vidyarambham’ on Monday, more than 14,000 children were initiated into the world of letters at the ‘Ezhuthiniruthu’ ceremony held at the Panachikkadu Saraswathi Temple here, which is also known as Dakshina Mookambika.
In total, around 3 lakh faithful visited the temple to offer prayers and around 40,000 people took part in the ‘annamootu’ ceremony on the ‘vidyarambham’ day.
People from across the state visited the temple on the day of ‘vidyarambam’ to offer prayers and to make children write the manthra ‘Hari Sree Ganapathaye Namaha’ in praise of Lord Ganesha. After the ‘poojayeduppu’ ceremony, the Vidyarambham function started at 4 a.m. and continued till 5.30 p.m.
As the goddess Swaraswathi is known as goddess of knowledge and art, several children conducted art performances on Monday seeking blessings. Temple authorities said that considering the importance of the temple, which has the goddess Saraswathy with only her quintessential ‘bhavam’, which is believed to exemplify ‘Vidhya’, faithful from all the districts from the state, starting from Thiruvanathapuram to Kasargod and from other states bring their children to conduct ‘Ezhuthiliruthu’ ceremony.
‘Vidyarambham’ at Thunchanparamba
Thousands of children entered the world of letters at the birth place of the father of Malayalam language, Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, near here on Monday. Literary figures like M T Vasudevan Nair and traditional ‘Ezhuthasans’ initiated the children into learning. Two traditional ‘asans’ (scholars) led the Vidyarambham rituals at the Thunchan Memorial Mandapam and around 20 writers including MT conducted the initiation ceremony at the Saraswathi Mandapam.