News in Frames: City of a goddess

The Pongala ritual at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple in Thiruvananthapuram is held every year, redolent of a mythical story of vengeance by a woman, her fight against injustice and her transformation to a goddess. It’s the day when only women are allowed on many streets in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram.

They come from all around the globe, braving the heat and humongous crowds, to cook offerings for their dear goddess in bare, basic hearths got up with a few red bricks on the roadside and using just dry palm fronds as fuel. The Pongala ritual at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple in Thiruvananthapuram is held every year, redolent of a mythical story of vengeance by a woman, her fight against injustice and her transformation to a goddess. It’s the day when only women are allowed on many streets in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram. 

The ritual remains a celebration of the legendary journey made by Kannagi after destroying Madurai. She is believed to have stopped at Attukal and her divine transformation began as Attukalamma before she left for Kodungallur in central Kerala. The Pongala ritual has turned into one of the largest gatherings of women anywhere in the world, and in 2009, the Guinness World Records recognised it as the largest religious gathering of women on a single day when over 25 lakh women took part. This year, the ritual was held on March 13.

Over the years, the ritual has branched out from the Attukal Bhagavathy temple to the periphery of the city through the narrow lanes as well as the arteries of the Kerala capital. Devotees start rushing to the temple to catch a glimpse of Attukalamma before they secure a spot within a wide radius of the temple for the ceremonial Pongala — the main ritual, which means “to boil over”, involves the cooking of a delectable mix of rice, jaggery, ghee, and coconut to be offered to the deity. When devotees start preparing the Pongala timed by an official announcement from the temple, the entire city is engulfed by smoke and its streets are filled with fervour and enthusiasm.

The Kerala Police and Fire and Rescue Services make a coordinated effort to make sure the festival is conducted without incident. “This year, a total of 3,815 police personnel were deployed only for Attukal duty and 847 cameras in and around the city helped us monitor movement of crowd from our control centre apart from the police drones that are also operational during the festival time,” said Nakul Deshmukh, Deputy Commissioner of Police-2, Thiruvananthapuram city. With the searing summer making an early beginning, devotees and staff on duty grappled with dehydration and heat exhaustion. Coming to the rescue of devotees this year were women fire fighters, who were inducted into the service for the first time in Kerala with firefighting traditionally remaining a male fiefdom. The ritual concluded without any major incident despite the heat warnings with 65 reported cases of heat exhaustion.