Hundreds of devotees from different parts of South India thronged the holy hillock of Sabarimala situated in the Periyar Tiger Reserve on Saturday afternoon to witness the auspicious Niraputhari festival to be celebrated on Sunday.
Melsanthi T.M. Narayanan Namboodiri opened the sanctum sanctorum in the presence of Tantri Kandararu Rajeevararu at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Bunches of paddy spikes
The temple rituals will begin with the Tantri performing Ashtadravya Ganapati homom on Sunday morning.
The Travancore Devaswom Board has brought paddy from its fields at Achencoil for the Niraputhari celebrations at Sabarimala.
Bundles of paddy spikes were brought to Pampa in a vehcular procession from Achencoil on Saturday afternoon. Prayar Gopalakrishnan, TDB president, Yatheendranath, Devaswom Administrative Officer, and a group of other board employees carried the paddy spikes on their head to the holy hillock from Pampa later. Another group of devotees attached to the Chittur branch of the Akhila Bharathiya Ayyappa Seva Sanghom in Palakkad too brought fresh paddy spikes to Sabarimala from their own fields near Kollangode for the 10th consecutive year on Saturday afternoon.
Time
The Tantri, assisted by the Melsanthi, will perform the Niraputhari puja at the Ayyappa temple in the auspicious muhurthom between 5.45 a.m. and 6.15 a.m. on Sunday.
The deity will be offered Nivedyom made of threshed fresh paddy brought by devotees as part of the ritual. The paddy spikes offered to the deity will be distributed among the devotees as prasadom, later.
The Ayyappa shrine will be closed after Athazhapuja on Sunday evening.