THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thousands of devotees performed the famed Attukal Pongala at their homes on Thursday. For the second year in a row, the ritual had to be performed in a low-key manner due to the pandemic.
The pongala ritual began on Thursday morning at the temple with a “sudhapunyaham”. Thantri Thekkedathu Kuzhikattu Parameswaran Vasudevan Bhattathiripad then handed over the sacred fire from the sanctum sanctorum to melsanthi P Easwaran Namboodiri. The melsanthi lighted the hearth in the temple kitchen and handed over the fire to co-priest Kesavan Namboodiri.
At 10.50am Kesavan Namboodiri lit the pandara aduppu, a decorated hearth set up near the flag mast, marking the start of the pongala ritual. The subsequent cracker bursts and loud chants were a signal for the devotees to light the hearths set up on their courtyards. The live telecast by TV channels helped devotees in faraway houses to light their hearths in synchrony.
Though the state government had allowed 1,500 devotees to offer pongala on the temple premises, the Attukal Temple Trust did not choose to utilise it. The trust wanted to avoid the headache of selecting devotees for the privilege. However, there was no ban on visitors to the temple and thousands of people poured into the temple for darshan on the festival days.
The government had banned the offering of the ritual in public places. Besides houses, women also offered the ritual in temples near their houses. The Kuthiyottam ritual in the evening was limited to the ritualistic purpose. Just one boy participated in it, whereas hundreds of children used to participate before the pandemic time. The traditional procession to the nearby Manacaud Sastha temple was taken out in the night adhering to the Covid protocol.
Devaswom Minister K Radhakrishnan, Education Minister V Sivankutty, Food Minister G R Anil, Transport Minister Antony Raju, Shashi Tharoor, MP, MLAs V K Prasanth, M Vincent, Mayor Arya Rajendran, Deputy Mayor P K Raju, councillor R Unnikrishnan and District Collector Navjot Khosa were present during the lighting of pandara aduppu.