Thousands turn up for all-women 'Pongala' festival

In what is billed as the world's biggest devotional congregation of women, tens of thousands participated in the all-women 'Pongala' ritual of the famed Attukal Bhagavathi Temple here on Tuesday.

Cutting across class, caste and religion, women from all parts of Kerala and adjoining areas squatted on roads and bylanes in a radius of seven km around the temple to cook the rice-jaggery-coconut 'Pongala' in earthen pots to be offered to the Goddess seeking divine blessings.

The ritual began at 10.35 am with the temple's high priest lighting the hearth in the temple kitchen with the flame taken from the sanctum sanctorum of the ancient temple.

Within a few seconds, hundreds of thousands of devotees lit their hearths. The ritual would conclude in the afternoon with the priests sprinkling the 'pongala' with holy water.

The festival had made its way into the Guinness Book of World Records as a unique religious event that attracts millions of women on a single day.

According to a legend, Pongala commemorates the hospitality accorded to epic heroine Kannagi, considered an incarnation of Goddess Bhagavathi, while on her way to Kondungallur after destroying the ancient city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu by setting it ablaze.

Security has been tightened in the city so that the festival can run smoothly.