Attukal Pongala

Attukal Pongala

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-I- Culture

In News:

• The Attukal Pongala is a ten-day- long festival held in Attukal Temple, Thiruvananthapuram(Kerala) is the largest congregation of women for a festival in the world.

• Pongala, which means ‘to boil over’, is the ritual in which women prepare sweet payasam (a pudding made from rice, jaggery, coconut and plantains cooked together) and offer it to the Goddess or ‘Bhagavathy’. The ritual can only be performed by women

• The festival commences with the musical rendering of the story of the Goddess (Kannaki Charitam) that invokes the victory of Good over Evil, by the slaying of Pandyan King.
• Also known as “the Sabarimala of Women”.