Kochi: Close to four-and-a -half-million women devotees cooked sweet pongala — a concoction of rice and jaggery — on simple hearths on roadsides to offer to the presiding deity at Attukal Bhagavathi temple here yesterday.
The temple — in the heart of the city — is dedicated to Attukal Bhagavathi, believed to be an incarnation of Kannaki, the central character of the Tamil epic “Silappathikaaram”.
The event takes place on the penultimate day of the 10-day-long Attukal Pongala festival — known as the Sabarimala pilgrimage for women.
The festival began with the chief priest lighting the traditional hearth at 10.30am in presence of devotees.
The sacred fire was then passed on to the devotees, who were lined up on either side of the road, to cook their offering using rice, jaggery and coconut.
Dressed in new clothes, women laden with earthen pots, bricks (for the hearths) and kindling seemed to have overwhelmed the city to cook pongala for the occasion.
Post noon, the temple priests sprayed holy water on pongal cooked by women as part of the ritual. A home maker from Kottayam, who was attending the festival for the first time, said: “...trust me, this is something that has to be seen to be believed....I am sure my problems would be resolved....”
IANS
