INDIA, August 25, 2014 (The Hindu): The Malayalam New Year day was all ceremonies and rituals at Sabarimala. The gifted playback singer P. Jayachandran rendered his popular devotional song Sree Sabareesaa Deenadayalo! Memalavaazhum Sree Manikanta, after receiving the Harivarasanam Award instituted by the State government from Devaswom Minister V.S. Sivakumar at a function held at the holy hillock in the forenoon.
Sabarimala witnessed a heavy rush on Sunday as hundreds of Ayyappa devotees from different parts of south India undertook the pilgrimage to the forest shrine to worship the deity on the Malayalam New Year day. The Ayyappa Temple was opened on Saturday afternoon and the rituals began with the Tantri Kandararu Rajeevararu performing the Ashtadravaya Ganapati homom followed by Ushapuja.
However, the pilgrims were put to much hardship because of poor crowd control arrangements made by the police. The police force deployed at Sabarimala and Pampa was grossly inadequate for effective management of the crowd congregated at the pilgrim centre. The Ayyappa Temple will be closed after the Athazhapuja on August 21 evening, marking the culmination of the monthly puja in the Malayalam month of Chingom.