THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Braving the scorching sun, thousands of women devotees offered ‘Pongala’ to Attukal Bhagavathy in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. The Pongala marks the finale of the 10-day-long ritual at the temple. Women from all walks of life prepared sweet dishes using rice, jaggery and coconut as offerings to the goddess by setting up hearths on the roads up to a 10km radius of the Attukal Bhagavathy temple. Though a slight drizzle on Sunday morning caused anguish among devotees, their fears were unfounded as the rain subsided within minutes.
The capital city became a place of mass ‘yaga’ when the temple’s chief priest, Goshala Vishnu Vasudevan Namboodiri, lit the hearth at the sanctum sanctorum at 10:30am. The deputy priest then brought the fire from the Attukal temple and lit the pongala pot kept outside the temple. A total of 300 priests appointed by the temple then lit the hearth of the devotees across the capital city. Attukal pongala holds the Guinness World Record for the largest congregation of women. The ritual came to a formal conclusion with the chief priest offering the ‘Nivedyam’ to the deity of the temple at 2:30pm. Around 300 priests were specially deployed for the day across the city to shower sacred water over the hearths belonging to the devotees. A helicopter belonging to the Indian Air Force showered flower petals marking the culmination of this year’s pongala festivities.
KSRTC operated 500 special buses for the festival and Southern Railways commenced special MEMU trains exclusively for women. T
hiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor took to his ‘X’ account (previously Twitter), “The hearth has just been lit. Now, all wait for the offering to be cooked and boil over the sides of the ceremonial pot. The special moment that I have been blessed to witness every year for the last fifteen years at the #AttukalPongala”!
Senior Congress MP K Muraleedharan, General Education Minister V Sivankutty, among others, attended the proceedings. The festival will conclude on Monday.
300 priests shower sacred water
Around 300 priests were specially deployed for the day across the city to shower sacred water over the hearths belonging to the devotees. A helicopter belonging to the Indian Air Force showered flower petals marking the culmination of this year’s pongala festivities.