The Hindu : Front Page : Thousands offer Pongala at Attukal

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Monday, Mar 01, 2010
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Thousands offer Pongala at Attukal

City Bureau

— Photo: S. Mahinsha

Devotion: Devotees offering prayers during the annual Pongala festival at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.

Thiruvananthapuram: In an atmosphere charged with religious fervour and devotion, tens of thousands of women offered pongala at the Attukal Bhagawathy temple here on Sunday, marking the climax of the annual festival.

The Attukal Pongala, recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest congregation of women in the world, got off to a start in the morning with temple chief priest T.M. Muralidharan Namboodiripad lighting a traditional hearth in the presence of hundreds of euphoric devotees on the temple premises. Almost simultaneously, thousands of women devotees spread across 22 municipal wards in the city lit the small hearths they had set up on roadsides and in houses to cook rice and jaggery, which is offered to the presiding deity of the ancient temple.

The flame from the sacred hearth inside the temple precincts was passed on quickly to several directions.

By evening, hundreds of priests fanned out across the city to consecrate the devotees’ pongala by sprinkling holy water on the offering. Police again had a tough time clearing the traffic jam.

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