PATHANAMTHITTA: Thousands of pilgrims who had been camping in and around the Sabarimala temple for the past few days witnessed Makara Jyothi in a spiritually surcharged atmosphere here on Monday.
Devotees, who thronged the Sannidhanam and surrounding areas, waited for hours in an atmosphere filled with sarana mantras to get a glimpse of the celestial star and light as part of the auspicious Makaravilakku festival of Sabarimala. Ten points were arranged at the temple for watching Makara Joythi. All those areas were packed with a sea of pilgrims.
TDB president P S Prasanth said that at least 1.5 lakh to two lakhs pilgrims were present at Sabarimala during the Makaravilakku festival time.
Prior to the ritual, the sacred jewels, which were brought in a procession from the Pandalam Palace, were handed over to the thanthri and the chief priest on Monday evening.
After the presiding deity was adorned with the thiruvabharanam, the ‘deeparadhana’ was performed at 6.44 pm. After that, Makara Jyothi was sighted thrice around 6.46 pm at Ponnambalamedu. Then the entire hill shrine reverberated with chants in praise of Lord Ayyappa.
Apart from Sannidhanam, people crowded at various vantage points around the Sabarimala hills to witness the celestial light. Every inch of Sannidhanam was occupied by devotees as the rush was unprecedented. Pilgrims had set up temporary shelters called ‘parnasalas’ at Pandithavalam to view Makarajyothi.
The Makarasankrama pooja, the ceremony marking the movement of the sun from Dakshinayanam to Utharayanam, was performed at the temple at 2.46 am on Monday. As part of the ceremony, neyyabhishekam was performed on the idol of Lord Ayyappa using the ghee brought from Kowdiar Palace, Thiruvananthapuram. The ongoing annual pilgrimage season will draw to a close on January 21 morning and the devotees can have darsan till January 20.
An additional batch of 1,000 police officials were deployed to ensure security during Makaravilakku. KSRTC operated 800 buses to carry pilgrims returning from Sabarimala.
Harivarasanam award presented to Veeramani
Earlier in the day, Devaswom Minister K Radhakrishnan presented this year’s Harivarasanam Award to well-known Tamil singer P K Veeramani Dasan on Monday.
The award consisting of a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a citation and a plaque, was presented at a function held at the Sannidhanam auditorium. He has sung over 6,000 devotional songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit. Ranni MLA Pramod Narayan presided over the function.
Speaking to reporters, Minister Radhakrishnan said that the state government could ensure a safe pilgrimage for the pilgrims within the limitations of Sabarimala.
“This time, we experienced more crowds than we expected. Besides, the number of children and elderly women visiting the hill shrine was high compared with the previous seasons. Anticipating the rush, the state government and TDB had arranged adequate facilities for pilgrims. All the departments worked together to conduct the pilgrimage smoothly,” said the minister.
“At the same time, a section of people tried to spread false propaganda during the pilgrimage. However, later it was found that those were baseless things. The minds of those climbing the hills must be pure,” he said.