Thiruvananthapuram: The annual Ponkala festival of Attukal Bhagavathi temple in Thiruvananthapuram, one of the world's biggest devotional congregations of women, is all set to make it to the Guinness Book of World Records.
The festival, which draws over a million of women on a single day in March to perform the Ponkala ritual, is getting mention in the Guinness book in the category of events attended by more than a million people, an official of Attukal Bhagavath Temple Trust said.
"We have already received a letter from the Guinness Book authorities. There would be a function soon where the formal announcement would be made," the Temple Secretary K P Ramachandran Nair said.
About 12 lakh women attended the last festival, but the Guinness had gone by 1997 turnout that touched about 15 lakh, he said.
The local tradition has it that Attukal Bhagavathi is the divine form of Kannagi, the heroine of Tamil Classic Silappadikaram.
The Ponkala festival, the temple lore says, celebrates the hospitality accorded to Kannagi by women at Attukal when she was on her away to Kodungallur after destroying the ancient city of Madurai to avenge the injustice meted out to her husband Kovilan.
The temple is also known as 'Women's Sabarimala' as only women are allowed to perform the ritual on the Pooram day of Malayalam month Kumbbham, which mostly coincides with March in the Western Calendar.
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