The auspicious Arat ceremony marking the culmination of the 10-day annual festival at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple was held at Pampa on Friday.
Hundreds of devotees from different parts of southern India thronged the foothills of Sabarimala to witness the ceremony held in the Pampa river in the forenoon. An idol of the presiding deity of the temple was taken out in a procession with the accompaniments of a caparisoned elephant and traditional temple percussion from the Sannidhanam to Pampa in the morning.
Tantri (chief priest) Kandararu Rajeevararu, assisted by Melsanthi (head priest) E.N. Krishnadas Namboodiri, performed the Arat puja between 11.15 a.m. and 11.45 a.m. in an atmosphere charged with devotion.
The deity was offered Ashtabhishekom, Manjal Neerattu, and Utchapuja at the special bathing ghat. The sacred Marappani and Panchavayam were the accompaniments of the ceremony.
The deity was seated at the Maha Ganapati temple precincts at Pampa for the devotees to offer prayers till 3.30 p.m.
Devotees from different parts of the State as well as from the neighbouring States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh attended the ceremony.
A large number of women devotees too turned up to worship the deity at Pampa as there is a traditional ban on the entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 to the Sannidhanam.
