Aarattu at Sabarimala temple today
TNN | Mar 21, 2019, 11:06 IST
Sabarimala templeTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Sabarimala temple will close after annual Painguni Uthram festival on Thursday. The temple remained opened for 10 days this month for the festival and Meenam month pujas. The festival is all set to conclude on Thursday without major hiccups, thus giving a big relief to government and Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
The arattu procession will start from Sabarimala temple at 8am and reach Pamba at 11am. The arattu mandapam at Pamba - which was submerged during floods last August - has been repaired and made ready to host this year's arattu.
"Earlier, hundreds of devotees, including women, used to come to Pamba to see arattu ceremony. All arrangements have been made this time too. Devotees can offer 'para' during the arattu ceremony at Pamba," said TDB president A Padmakumar.
After arattu, idol of Lord Ayyappa will be taken to Pamba Ganapathy temple and kept at the mandapam there for special pujas and darshan. The return procession will begin at 4pm. Once the procession reaches the temple, the festival flag will be lowered and temple nada will close after playing Harivarasanam.
In April too, the temple will be open for 10 days for Vishu and Medam month pujas. The temple will open at 5pm on April 10 and close on April 19.
The annual festival was incident-free, except a couple of occasions when volunteers of Sabarimala Karma Samiti objected to the trekking of women. In the first incident, two women pilgrims from Bengaluru complained that they were stopped by a group of people and the police led them in as they were aged above 50. In the second incident, two women, who were aged below 50, returned to Pamba after Karma Samiti volunteers forced them to return from Marakkoottam. They were part of a pilgrim group from Andhra Pradesh.
The arattu procession will start from Sabarimala temple at 8am and reach Pamba at 11am. The arattu mandapam at Pamba - which was submerged during floods last August - has been repaired and made ready to host this year's arattu.
"Earlier, hundreds of devotees, including women, used to come to Pamba to see arattu ceremony. All arrangements have been made this time too. Devotees can offer 'para' during the arattu ceremony at Pamba," said TDB president A Padmakumar.
After arattu, idol of Lord Ayyappa will be taken to Pamba Ganapathy temple and kept at the mandapam there for special pujas and darshan. The return procession will begin at 4pm. Once the procession reaches the temple, the festival flag will be lowered and temple nada will close after playing Harivarasanam.
In April too, the temple will be open for 10 days for Vishu and Medam month pujas. The temple will open at 5pm on April 10 and close on April 19.
The annual festival was incident-free, except a couple of occasions when volunteers of Sabarimala Karma Samiti objected to the trekking of women. In the first incident, two women pilgrims from Bengaluru complained that they were stopped by a group of people and the police led them in as they were aged above 50. In the second incident, two women, who were aged below 50, returned to Pamba after Karma Samiti volunteers forced them to return from Marakkoottam. They were part of a pilgrim group from Andhra Pradesh.
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