01Kannagi on the Killi river
The temple’s account identifies Attukal Amma with Kannagi of the Tamil epic Silappatikaram, the wife who burned Madurai with her anger after her husband Kovalan was wrongly executed. On her way to Kodungallur, the account goes, she appeared as a young girl to an elder of the Mullaveettil family on the bank of the Killi river and asked to be taken across; that night she told him in a dream to build her a shrine where three lines would be found marked in the grove. The family built the first kavu there. She is also worshipped as Bhadrakali, mounted on a vetala, the slayer of Daruka.
02Pongala
On the Pooram day of the month of Kumbham, February or March, women from across Kerala and beyond set up small hearths of three bricks along kilometres of road around the temple. At a signal from the sanctum the first fire is lit from the temple lamp and passed hearth to hearth, and each woman cooks pongala, rice with jaggery and coconut, in a new clay pot for the Devi. Priests later walk the streets sprinkling holy water on the pots. The 2009 Pongala, with an estimated 25 lakh women, was recorded by Guinness World Records.
The life of this place
- 2009Guinness World Records records the Pongala as the largest gathering of women for a religious activity.
About 2 km south of East Fort and the Padmanabhaswamy temple. On Pongala day roads are closed; arrive the night before.
