New record for Kerala all-women's temple

The Guinness Book of World Records has upgraded the largest gathering of women attending a religious event set by the 'women's Sabarimala', the famed Attukal Bhagavathy temple in Kerala, to a religious event that draws the largest number of devotees on a single day.

Guinness had conferred the honour to the temple, based on convergence of 1.5 million women devotees to the festival in 1997.

Taking note of the higher turnout of 2.5 million for the ritual in March 2009, Guinness upgraded the record recently as a religious event that draws the largest gathering of women, temple sources said.

The temple is located in the southern periphery of the Thiruvananthapuram.

While the hill shrine of Sabarimala of Lord Ayyappa bars females in the 10-50 age group, only women participate in the 'pongala' ritual of Attukal temple.

On 'pongala day', which falls on February 28 in 2010, thousands of women will converge in the city and prepare sweetened rice on fresh earthen pots to be offered to the Goddess, seeking divine blessings.

According to local tradition, the presiding goddess of the shrine is the divine form of Kannagi, the heroine of Tamil classic 'Silappadikaram'.

Temple lore has it that the festival commemorates the hospitality accorded by women in Attkual village to Kannagi, while on her way to Kodungallur in central Kerala after destroying the ancient city of Madurai to avenge the injustice meted out to her husband Kovilan.