Attukal Pongala, the ‘Sabarimala for Women,’ is Now a Global Celebration of Devi Bhadrakali
- This annual Hindu celebration from Kerala, is now celebrated world over by Malayali women, with Christian and Muslim women often joining in.
Recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest congregation of women of faith at one time anywhere in the world, the annual Attukal Pongala is about to commence! This ten-day celebration of the Devi culminates in the fire/cooking ritual on the ninth day. The city of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala is gearing up to accommodate the millions of women who will arrive, on February 25, 2024, to perform and participate in the ritual to Devi Bhadrakali, the deity in the Attukal Bhagavathy temple.
This annual Hindu celebration from Kerala, is now celebrated world over by Malayali women, with Christian and Muslim women often joining in. The worship of Devi is as old as Hinduism and central to the faith. In fact, the Attukal Pongala is so dear and special to women that they come from all over India and abroad to join the festivities in Kerala.
A distinguishing feature of this festival is that only women participate and therefore, the festival has come to be known as the “Sabarimala for women.” As is well known, Sabarimala is a pilgrimage undertaken mostly by male devotees of Ayyappa Swamy. Women who are not in their reproductive years also visit Sabarimala, but Attukal is solely for women. The beauty of diverse Hindu practices is evident in these complementary pilgrimages and festivals where both men and women are accommodated with special opportunities to find their individual paths to salvation.
Attukal Pongala makes no distinction between faiths, class, ethnicities, jatis, color, or socio-economic status. All participating women sit together on the streets around the temple and beyond, with their three brick stoves/hearths using firewood and earthen pots to cook a dessert or a savory item for their beloved Attukal Bhagavati. It is a testament to the strength of faith of these women who conduct this puja in swelteringly hot weather in Kerala. Women participants say that this worship, with heartfelt prayers for the Devi’s blessings, have helped them in their own lives. Ultimately, that is the point of faith, to find solutions to dilemmas and problems with a nudge from the divine.
The celebration of Attukal Pongala also honors food as Annapoorni, the farmers who grow the food, and the life of a seed all the way to the grain on our plates, exemplifying the holistic nature of Hindu festivals. Pongala acknowledges the Sun, without which there is no life on earth, the heat of fire, which is present in our bodies. It pays respect to the elements by setting up a hearth on the earth in the open, with the wind and sky as witnesses. It represents the purification of the mind and body via sadhana of three days or more. The preparation for the ritual includes fasting by the women and reciting the Lalita Sahasra Namam (1000 names of the Devi).
These women-led spaces like Attukal Pongala clearly demonstrate the primary space held by women in Hinduism-traditions that carry over when Hindu’s move to other lands. In the United States, Kerala Hindus in several cities celebrate this festival. Last here. invocations to Devi Bhadrakli resounded in my Las Vegas temple and this year, the puja on February 25 starts at 10:20 AM in India and ends at 1:24PM.
In the United States, women perform the puja at the same time, that is, at10:20 AM regardless of the time difference across continents. The pujari will perform a Devi puja to invoke the Attukal Bhagavathi into the American temple and in the Devi murti. Then the cooking begins, with the pujari blessing the process. Once the prasad of rice is made and the pot overflows, the pujari sprinkles holy water on all the pots and recites the necessary mantras thanking Bhagavati for a successful Pongala.
It’s a time of bonding and harmony amongst the community, sending a prayer of gratitude to nature and all that it provides to humanity! The prayer of Lokaha Samastaha Sukhino Bhavantu at the end of the puja wishes every living being on earth happiness and prosperity!
Shubham Attukal Pongala to all who will celebrate in 2024.
(Photos by Krishna Kumar, Las vegas.)
Sudha Jagannathan is an American Hindu of Bahujan background who has lived in the U.S. for decades, having first arrived as a student, then worked in tech companies for many years while raising a family in her new homeland. Currently, she serves on the board of the Coalition of Hindus of North America (COHNA) working on issues that affect the Hindu community in North America. She coaches parents and students and advocates on their behalf in schools when issues of faith and culture collide with Western narratives. Sudha loves to travel around the world and these days looks for stories of global indigenous people who lost out to Western colonization but have similarities of traditions and culture to India’s native religious and other practices.