Attukal Pongala is an important part of the socio-religious life of the people of Thiruvananthapuram, India. The Attukal Bhagavathy Temple, it is one of the largest all-women religious congregations of women in India with more than a million men and women participating from many parts of the state and beyond.
Pongala (Pongal), the festival of the Goddess Bhagavathy, is celebrated in Attukal Temple in Trivandrum, Kerala.
It is a 10-day religious festival. On the ninth day there is a huge gathering of millions of women on the temple surroundings. These women prepare a divine food made of rice in earthen pots and offer it to the Attukal Amm.
The pongala preparation starts with the ritual called 'Aduppuvettu'. This is the lighting of the pongala hearth (called Pandarayaduppu) placed inside the temple by the chief priest.
This is the earliest Pongala festival in Kerala. The festival is marked as the largest annual gathering of women by the Guinness World Records.
The ceremony was set up in Guinness Book of World Records on February 23, 1997, when 1.5 million women participated in Pongala.
The Attukal Bhagavathy Temple is a famous Bhadrakali shrine, located at the heart of Thiruvananthapuram city. Also known as “the Sabarimala of Women', this temple attracts the biggest set of women devotees for the annual Attukal Pongala festival.
Goddess Bhadrakali, mounted over 'vethala', is the main deity in this temple. Bhadrakali, a form of Mahakali, who killed the demon king Daruka, believed to be born from the third eye of lord Shiva.
'Bhadra' means good and 'Kali' means goddess of time. So Bhadrakali is considered as the goddess of prosperity and salvation.
Goddess 'Attukal devi', itself is the supreme mother 'Bhaadrkali devi', (in soumya aspect) the goddess of power and courage. She is often referred as Kannaki, the heroine of Ilanko Adikal's 'Silapathikaaram'.
The temple is renowned for the annual Attukal Pongal festival, in which over three million women participate.
Kerala architecture is a synthesis of Aryan and Dravidian styles. The main influences on Kerala architecture came from Tamil Nadu in the south and Karnataka in the north.
The traditional wooden roof of Kerala dwellings was also primarily from Karnataka. The formation of Kerala-style architecture happened with the rise of the feudal system in Kerala.
Kerala temples have a distinct style of their own by the lavish use of wood, stone and metals. Wood is used for making Temples because of rich forest cover.
The base structure of the temple is made using granite and laterite. The roof may have one, two or even three stories. The shape of the roof depends on the plan of the sanctum below.
The steep and needle like roof is made of wood and is covered with copper plates in order to protect the inner skeletal framework from the vigorous monsoons.