Sabarimala: A big rush of devotees was witnessed at Swami Ayyappa Temple in Sabarimala after the ‘Thanka Anki’ (royal ornaments) procession reached the shrine. When the ‘Deeparadhana’ was performed on the idol after it was adorned with the holy ornaments, the devotees lit camphor lamps.
The procession had reached Pamba Ganapathy Temple on a chariot and from there the Thanka Anki was carried in a box. The box was accompanied by Ayyappa Seva Sangham functionaries N Venugopalan Nair of Kadakkal, Haridasan Nair of Pathanamthitta, Ramayya from Dindigul, Ramesh from Palakkad, Balakrishnan from Bengaluru, Sinthil from Vilippuram and Subrahmanya Iyer from Tirunelveli. A large posse of police provided security to the procession.
When the procession resumed its journey from Saramkuthy, the Brahmini kite appeared in the sky and hovered above. This sight was greeted with loud chants by the devotees. Musical accompaniments and ‘Theevetty’ (holy lanterns) accompanied the procession.
Climbing the holy steps (‘Pathinettam Padi), the Thanka Anki was received by Devaswom Board president K Padmakumar, members K P Sankara Das and D Vijayakumar, High Court observers Justice (retd) P R Raman, Justice (retd) S Sirijagan and DGP A Hemachandran, Devaswom commissioner N Vasu and special commissioner M Manoj.
At the sanctum sanctorum, Thantri Kandararu Rajeevaru and chief priest V N Vasudevan Nampoothiri received the holy ornaments. After the idol was decorated with the Thanka Anki, a big crowd was seen before the shrine. The queue at the northern entrance extended beyond Malikappuram temple to Pandithavalam. The police arranged special security to prevent any tragedy due to the rush.
The procession, which had set off four days ago from the Sree Parthasarthy temple at Aranmula, reached the Lord Ayyappa temple by around 6.30 pm.
When the crowd became huge, KSRTC deployed more buses on the Pamba-Nilakkal route. From 130 buses, the number was increased to 170. Another 40 buses were kept ready at Pamba to conduct the chain service.
As many as 25 inspectors and 7 assistant transport officers were stationed at Nilakkal to ensure smooth running of the bus services. From Pamba, KSRTC arranged 300 services.
Meanwhile, during this mandala puja season, 32 lakh pilgrims have so far trekked to the hill shrine,
Last year, revenue collection at the temple touched Rs 160 crore, while this year it was rs 105 crore so far.
By the time the Makaravillakku is over, the earnings are expected to touch that of last year, he said.
The temple had witnessed heavy rush in the past few days after a lull in footfalls, following the restrictions imposed due to protests by devotees.
The Ayyappa temple had witnessed frenzied protests by devotees against the state government's decision to implement the Supreme Court's September 28 verdict, opening its doors to women of all ages to offer prayers.
