KERALA, March 6, 2015 (Daily Pioneer): Millions of women from Kerala, other states and even from outside the country on Thursday cooked Pongala (rice-jaggery pudding). One huge group did so on open hearths on the streets of Thiruvananthapuram and offered it to the Goddess of the Attukal Devi temple, known as Women’s Sabarimala, virtually turning the State’s capital city into a Yagashala.
The rush of women devotees of the Goddess on the occasion was so heavy that women had lined up for cooking the Pongala on the city streets in a 6 mile radius from the Attukal temple. As per estimates, over three million women had participated in the Pongala festival last year but temple officials said on Thursday that they expected the number to be about four million this year.