The Hindu : Kerala News : Sabarimala temple festival ends

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Kerala

Sabarimala temple festival ends

Staff Reporter

RITUAL: The ‘Arat’ ceremony held on Friday marking the culmination of the 10-day festival at the Lord Ayyappa Temple.

PATHANAMTHITTA: The Arattu ceremony, marking the culmination of the 10-day annual festival at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, was held at Pampa on Friday.

Hundreds of devotees from different parts of south India witnessed the ceremony held at a specially prepared ‘arattu-kadavu’ in the Pampa before the Ganapati temple on the foothills.

M.Rajendran Nair, Special Commissioner appointed by the Kerala High Court, C.K. Gupthan, Travancore Devaswom Board president, P.Narayanan, P.K. Sumathykutty Amma, board members, and C.G. Satchidanandan, Devaswom Commissioner, were among those who attended the ceremony.

Tantri Kandararu Maheshwararu, assisted by Melsanti T.K. Krishnan Namboodiri, performed the rituals .

The Arattu procession set off to Pampa from the Sannidhanam after the Arattubali at 8.30 a.m. The Arattupuja began at the Arattu-kadavu at 11.45 a.m.

The deity was seated on a ‘peetom’ on the Ganapati temple precincts till 3.30 p.m. for the devotees to offer prayers.

The Arattu procession set off to the Sannidhanam at 3.30 p.m. and the Tantri brought down the ceremonial flag on the temple mast in the evening, marking the culmination of the festival.

The Melsanti performed the ‘deeparadhana’ and the ‘athazhapuja’, before the temple was closed with the Melsanthi and the other priests with the sacred lullaby, Harivarasanam, later.

The Vishu festival at the temple will be held from April 11 to 18 and the shrine will open for Vishu at 5.30 p.m. on April 10.

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