Devotees offer Pongala at Karikkakom Sree Chamundi Temple

The ritual offering commenced with the lighting of the main hearth – the ‘Pandara Aduppu’ – at 10.15 a.m.

Thousands of devotees made the annual Pongala offering at the Karikkakom Sree Chamundi temple in the district on Friday.

The ritual offering commenced with the lighting of the main hearth – the ‘Pandara Aduppu’ – at 10.15 a.m. The flame from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple was passed to the main hearth under the supervision of temple tantri Puliyannur Illathu Narayanan Anujan Namboodiripad.

At 2.15 p.m., the ceremonial sword of the deity was brought to the ‘Pongala Kalam’ for the ‘Pongala Tharpanam’ ritual.

The Karikkakom Pongala falls on the seventh day of the annual festival at the temple.

Kadakampally Surendran MLA, Mayor Arya Rajendran, the UDF candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls Shashi Tharoor, LDF candidate Pannian Raveendran and the BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar visited the temple. Temple Trust chairman M. Radhakrishnan Nair, trust president T. Madhusoodanan Nair and secretary M. Bhargavan Nair were also present.