Watch | What makes Palani 'panchamirtham' unique?
The Hindu
A video on Palani panchamirtham, the first temple prasadam to bag the GI tag.
The panchamirtham is a temple prasadam that is given at Sri Dhandayuthapani Swamy Temple at Palani in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu.
It is the first temple prasadam in the State to have bagged the Geographical Indication tag. The panchamirtham is an ‘abhishega prasadam’, a religious food offering made to the presiding deity - Lord Dhandayuthapani Swamy.
Every day, around 500 grams of panchamirtham is used in the abhishegam to the processional deity.
What makes this temple prasadam unique?
The secret of this unique taste in every batch lies in blending five main ingredients in precise ratio. This includes banana, country-sugar, ghee, honey and cardamom. In the early days, hill banana and honey, which are found in abundance in the mountainous region near Palani, were used to make the prasadam.
It is believed that panchamirtham came into being in the 9th Century AD. References to the prasadam were found in Tamil literature such as Nakkeerar’s Thirumurugattrupadai and Arunagirinathar’s Thiruppugazh.
How is the panchamirtham made?