4 months ago
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Amid an unprecedented surge of devotees who had been camping successful and astir the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple for the past respective days, the Makaravilakku festival was celebrated astatine the elevation temple connected Wednesday.
Braving the monolithic crowds, thousands of devotees waited for hours to drawback a glimpse of the Makarajyoti — the celestial airy that appears connected the eastbound skyline of the Sannidhanam — and to witnesser the Makaravilakku deeparadhana performed atop the Ponnambalamedu hillock facing the temple.
The full pilgrimage zone, including the surrounding hills, had been packed with devotees for days, each eagerly awaiting the twilight spectacle. Rooftops of buildings, east-facing hillsides, and grasslands wrong the Sabarimala wood country were occupied by pilgrims seeking vantage points to witnesser the event.
Prior to the ritual, the 26-member squad carrying the ineffable ornaments from the Pandalam Palace formally handed implicit the jewellery casket to Tantri Mahesh Mohanaru and Melsanthi E.D. Prasad.
The ceremonial was attended by dignitaries, including Devaswom Minister V.N. Vasavan and Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president K. Jayakumar. The deity was adorned with the thiruvabharanam, and the deeparadhana astatine the Sannidhanam was performed astatine 6.40 p.m.
Devotion reached a crescendo erstwhile the deeparadhana was performed atop Ponnambalamedu and the superb occurrence of the Makaravilakku was sighted thrice. Along with devotees astatine the Sannidhanam, pilgrims stationed astatine assorted vantage points crossed the Sabarimala hills witnessed the ineffable light. The constabulary had enactment successful spot elaborate information arrangements astatine each these locations.
Earlier successful the day, the Makarasankrama puja was performed astatine the Ayyappa temple.
To negociate the dense influx of pilgrims, the authorities opened further parking grounds astatine Nilackal. The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) operated 100 buses to grip the rush, portion astir 2,000 constabulary unit were deployed crossed the pilgrimage zone. With the portion witnessing an unprecedented attraction of devotees and vehicles, strict postulation regulations were enforced on the Sabarimala routes from aggregate directions.
Meanwhile, the temple recorded a important summation successful gross during the ongoing Mandala–Makaravilakku season, with full collections touching ₹429 crore, based connected accounts up to January 12. During the corresponding play past year, the gross stood astatine ₹380 crore.
Revenue from the merchantability of appam and aravana unsocial amounted to ₹190 crore, compared to ₹160 crore successful the erstwhile season. Offerings received done the hundi (kanikka) generated ₹110 crore, up from ₹105 crore past year. Coin counting is presently nether way, with further unit deployed to implicit the process by January 20.
According to the TDB, astir 51 lakh pilgrims had visited the temple for darshan truthful far. Of these, astir 44 lakh pilgrims arrived during the Mandala season, portion astir 7 lakh visited during the Makaravilakku festival period.
