By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Millions of women will line the streets leading to the Attukal Bhagavathy temple here Feb 22 and cook special rice offering for the deity during the temple festival.
“During last year’s festival, nearly two-and-a-half million women lined up on the streets near the temple to cook the rice offering. This time we expect an increase of 30 percent women devotees,” G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the temple festival committee told reporters here Wednesday.
The event takes place on the penultimate day of the 10-day long Pongala festival. The sweet offering, called pongal, made by women is a mixture of rice, jaggery and coconut.
Attukal Bhagavathy is believed to be an incarnation of Kannagi, the heroine of Tamil epic “Silappathikaram”. It is said that Kannagi, who by her wrath burned Madurai in retaliation against her husband’s death, travelled to Kerala and rested at Attukal. Women there are believed to have cooked pongal to soothe Kannagi’s rage.
The temple is also referred to as the Sabarimala for women.
The unprecedented rush for the festival began a few years ago after the “Guinness Book of World Records” listed it as the only event where over a million women get together to take part in festivities.
Women arrive at least two days before the special day to occupy a cooking place near the temple. Latecomers have to line up further away on the streets.
Last year, the queue stretched to almost 15 km in and around the temple.