Thiruvananthapuram:
Women in thousands are converging in the Kerala capital on the eve of the famed"Pongala" festival of Attukal Bhagavathi temple, billed as the world's largest religious convergence of women.
A rare all-women event anywhere in the world, the main feature of the festival is cooking sweetened rice on earthenpots and offering it to Goddess Bhagavathi to invoke divine blessings.
Women will squat along roads and by-lanes since the wee hours to prepare the offering and wait till theafternoon when the 'pongala' would be sanctified by sprinkling holy water by temple priests.
Attukal pongala has made its way to the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest religious congregation of womenon a single day.
The temple management claims that around 3.2 million devotees performed the ritual last year and the turnout isexpected to be higher this year.
According to the temple lore, the ritual commemorates the hospitality accorded to Tamil mythical heroine Kannanki,herself divine, by the local women while she was on her way to Kodungallur in central Kerala after avenging the treacherydone to her husband Kovalan by the Madurai king.
Majority of devotees from outside come as groups and find a suitable place to perform the ritual, while locals providefacilities, including food and drinking water, to those coming to perform the ritual at their premises.
Though the festival was confined to the temple ground during the early days, it has now spread to every nook andcorner of the city with the increasing number of devotees.
The temple management, state agencies and railways have made special arrangements for the festival.