Mandalapooja ceremony on Dec27

SABARIMALA: Preparations were completed for the auspicious Mandalapooja ceremony, which will be performed between 12.29 p.m. and 12.40 p.m. on Thursday.

The ceremony will be performed after adorning the Thanka Anki on the idol of Lord Ayyappa. As part of the preparations, Neyyabhishekam facility will be available for the pilgrims between 4.15 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Thantri Kandararu Maheswararu will perform the Kalabhakalasa pooja at 11.30 a.m., followed by a Kalasam procession around the Sreekovil.

Reception: The Thanka Anki procession was given a traditional reception on its arrival at Pampa at 12 noon on Wednesday under the leadership of Pampa Administrative Officer K. Vijayan, Special Officer V. Jayaprakash, accountant P. Dileepkumar, C.P. Ganesh, K. Radhakrishnan and Rajeev.

Pampa melsanthi Unnikrishnan Potti and Narayanan Nampoothiri performed the rituals on the Anki. After the reception , the Anki was kept in front of the Lord Ganapathi temple for darsan till 3 p.m.

The procession carrying the Anki started its onward journey for Sannidhanam from Pampa at 3 p.m. On its arrival at Saramkuthi at 5.30 p.m., a Devaswom team led by executive officer B. Unnikrishnan, G. Anilkumar, Special Officer Suresh Jeevan, Assistant Executive Officer Gopalakrishnan and Assistant Engineer Basantkumar accorded reception.

The Thanka Anki was received in front of the golden flagmast at Sopanam by Thantri Maheswararu and Melsanthi Krishnan Nampoothiri. Later it was taken inside the Sreekovil.

After adorning the idol with Thanka Anki, deeparadhana was held at 6.30 p.m. Special officer K. Jayakumar, TDB member Sumathikutty Amma, Special Commissioner M. Rajendran Nair, Police Special Officer S. Sreejith, Devaswom Commissioner C. G. Sachidanandan and chief engineer G. Rajagopal were among those present on the occasion.