Devotees at Sabarimala Temple.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: Thousands of pilgrims thronged the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala on Monday to witness the ‘Makaravilakku’ and ‘Makara Jyothi’.
Thousands of devotees from across the globe thronged the temple from early hours of the day. After darshan, the devotees moved to view points . Many stayed at Sannidhanam itself.
As the ‘Makara jyoti’ (star) appeared on the sky and the ‘Makaravilakku’ (lamp) on the Ponnambalamedu hills by around 6:45 pm, the air was thick with Ayyappa chants of pilgrims.
The Ayyappa idol in the shrine was adorned with ‘Tiruvabharanam’ (sacred ornaments) brought from Pandalam Palace in Pathanamthitta, believed to be the place where Ayyappa spent his childhood.
The Travancore Devaswom Board and the district police had made elaborate crowd management arrangements. Devaswom Minister K Radhakrishnan visited Sabarimala and reviewed the arrangements.
'Harivarasanam' chanting
It was as part of the centenary celebrations of the hymn Harivarasanam that chanting across the globe was organised on Monday. The Sabarimala Ayyappa Seva Samajam initiated the global chanting.
Samajam general secretary Erode Rajan told DH that small groups of devotees chanted the Harivarasanam song simultaneously at many places in India and in several countries at 7 pm IST.
Harivarasanam is believed to be written by an Ayyappa devotee Konnakath Janaki Amma in 1923. It attained much popularity after renowned singer K J Yesudas sang it for the Malayalam movie Swami Ayyappan in 1975. The song is being sung as a lullaby for Ayyappa at the hill shrine over the last several decades. It is sung at the time of the closure of the temple every day.