Tradition · temple elephant festival · India
Thrissur Pooram
A day and a night in Medam at the Vadakkunnathan temple in which two rival groups of temples, Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi, face each other across the ground with fifteen caparisoned elephants apiece and try to outdo one another — in the parasols raised and swapped above the elephants, and in the panchavadyam and pandi melam drummed by hundreds of players. It was instituted about 1798 by Sakthan Thampuran of Cochin after the local temples were shut out of another festival.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 10.528, 76.214
Worth knowing
The contest that decides it is the kudamattam, the changing of the parasols: each side raises a new one and the crowd's roar is the scoring, so the outcome of Kerala's largest festival is judged by ear.
Connections (1)
- Shrine within cityThrissur / Vadakkunnathan
The Pooram is held on the Vadakkunnathan temple's ground but not by it: Sakthan Thampuran of Cochin instituted it about 1798 after the temples of the surrounding villages were shut out of another festival, and organised them into two groups, Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi, to compete. The Shiva temple at the centre is the venue and the arbiter; the contest belongs to the ten temples that arrive with fifteen elephants each and try to out-parasol one another.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Thrissur Pooram”. Kerala Devaswom records; Cochin state chronicles on Sakthan Thampuran.
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