Attukal Bhagavathy Temple

The goddess of Attukal is Bhadrakali, and Kerala Tourism records that she is also known as Kannaki. Her story is the story of the Tamil epic Silappatikaram, and at Attukal it is not only told — it is sung, every year, as the opening of her festival.

Kannaki is the wife of Kovalan, a merchant's son. In the epic, Kovalan leaves her for the dancer Madhavi and spends his fortune, then returns to Kannaki with nothing. The two go to Madurai to start again, and Kannaki gives him one of her anklets to sell.

In Madurai the queen's anklet has been stolen. Kovalan is accused of the theft by a goldsmith, and the Pandya king has him executed without a hearing. Kannaki comes to court with the other anklet of the pair and breaks it open to show that it holds something different from the queen's, proving her husband innocent. The king, realising the injustice, dies. Kannaki's anger then falls on the city, and Madurai burns.

At Attukal this story frames the festival. Kerala Tourism records that the ten-day festival opens with the Kappukettu ceremony, at which the Kannaki Charitam — the story of the goddess — is sung for nine days, invoking Kodungallur Bhagavathy.

The festival builds to the Pongala. On the ninth day, on the Pooram star at the full moon, the streets around the temple for roughly seven kilometres become sacred ground. Women bring firewood, earthen pots, rice, jaggery and coconut, and at an auspicious time fixed in advance the chief priest signals the lighting of the hearth. The women cook pongala — the word means to boil over — as an offering to the goddess they call Attukalamma. Priests sprinkle holy water over the offerings to close the rite.

The story explains why the deity is approached as Kannaki as well as Bhadrakali, why her festival begins with nine days of singing her life, and why its central offering is made by women. Kerala Tourism records that women of all castes, creeds and religions take part.

A note on this telling: the episodes of Kovalan, the anklet and the burning of Madurai are summarised from the Silappatikaram and have not yet been checked canto by canto against a translation. Beyond Kerala Tourism's statement, we have not yet found a written account of how the epic's Kannaki came to be Attukal's goddess.