Thousands who gathered in and around the premises of the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala on Wednesday witnessed the ‘Makara Jyothi’ ritual, the high-point of the annual Makaravilakku festival, amid stringent security arrangements at the hill shrine.
The pilgrims witnessed the ‘makarajyothi’ star in the eastern horizon, followed by the sighting of the ‘makaravilakku’ light in the Ponnambalamedu hills as soon as the sanctum sanctorum of the temple reopened following the Deeparadhana pooja. Chants of ‘Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa’ rang in the air during the occasion.
As per beliefs, Lord Ayyappa reveals himself as a ‘star’ in the sky for the faithful on the auspicious occasion.
Earlier, the ‘thiruvabharana’ procession, carrying the sacred jewels from the Pandalam palace to be adorned on the deity on Makarajyothi, reached the premises of the temple around 5.30pm after a three-day journey. Top officials of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) welcomed those carrying the sacred jewels and they were brought into the sanctum sanctorum just before the “deeparadhana” pooja around 6.25 pm.
Around 2,000 police personnel were deployed in and around the premises to control the crowds on the most popular day of the two-month-long festival. While the number of pilgrims who could book through virtual queues were capped at 30,000, spot booking was allowed only for 5000 pilgrims, as per orders of the Kerala high court. Additional services of the state run KSRTC buses have been arranged to ensure safe return of pilgrims and avoid congestion at Pampa and Nilakkal.
TDB president K Jayakumar had informed that specific vantage points were installed for pilgrims to view the ‘Makaravilakku’ in the Ponnambalamedu hills.
Jayakumar said that 5.1 million pilgrims offered prayers at the temple between November 16 and January 12 during the annual pilgrimage season. The figure for the same period last year was 4.8 million.
The temple, during this period, generated revenue of ₹429 crore. Last year, the figure was ₹380 crore.
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