Cutting across age, thousands of women took part in the famous ‘Attukal Pongala,’ one of the largest religious congregations of women, here on Wednesday.
Preparing ‘pongala’ (a sweet offering) is considered an auspicious all-women ritual as part of the annual festival of the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple here, which is popularly known as the “Women’s Sabarimala”.
Festive spirit
Braving scorching heat and humid climate, women from various parts of Kerala and outside the State converged on both sides of highways, roads and by-lanes across the city and prepared ‘pongala’, a mix of rice, jaggery and scraped coconut in fresh earthen or metal pots to please the Goddess. With makeshift brick stoves, placed on either side of roads, and hymns praising the goddess echoing all-round, the State capital appeared like a large ‘yaga sala’.
The festivities began at 10.20 am after chief priest N Vishnu Namboothiri lit the ‘pandara aduppu’, the main hearth at the shrine. Following this, women devotees lit their brick stoves and prepared the offering chanting prayers all the while.
Besides ‘pongala’, many devotees also prepared several other offerings like ‘therali’, ‘mandaputtu’ and ‘palpayasam.’ “Kuthiyottam”, a ritual which sees the participation of boys aged below 13, was held at night. In 2009, the Pongala ritual had made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest religious gathering of women on a single day when over 25 lakh women took part.
As per local legend, the Pongala festival commemorates the hospitality accorded by women in the locality to Kannagi, the heroine of the Tamil epic Silappadhikaram while she was on her way to Kodungallur in Kerala, after destroying Madurai city to avenge the injustice to her husband Kovalan.
Attukal Temple is called the “Women’s Sabarimala” as only women perform rituals, just as predominantly men undertake the pilgrimage to the shrine of Lord Ayyappa.