Ponnambalamedu is a summit in the Western Ghat mountain ranges of

Pathanamthitta District Pathanamthitta District (), is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala. The district headquarters is in the town of Pathanamthitta. There are four municipalities in Pathanamthitta: Adoor, Pandalam, Pathanamthitta and Thiruvalla ...

Perunad Perunad (''Ranni-Perunad'') is a scenic hilly village in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala state, India.Nearest Railway Station Is Thiruvalla Located At A Distance Of 62 km. It's located on the banks of Pamba River and Kakkadu River. Perunad ...

grama panchayat,

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, India. It is located near the Sabarimala

Ayyappan Ayyappan an incarnation of dharma sastha, also called Manikandan, is a Hindu deity popular in Southern India, He is considered to be the epitome of dharma, truth, and righteousness and is often called upon to obliterate evil. Although devotion ...

temple, where the annual

Makaravilakku Makaravilakku is an annual festival held on Makara Sankranti in Kerala, India at the shrine of Sabarimala. The festival includes the Thiruvabharanam (sacred ornaments of Lord Ayyappan) procession and a congregation at the hill shrine of Sabar ...

event is conducted in the presence of nearly half a million pilgrims annually.

Etymology

''Ponnambalamedu'' is derived from the

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

words ''Pon'' (gold), ''Ambalam'' (temple) and ''Medu'' (hill). The compound word is meant to refer to ''the hill of the golden temple''.

Location

Ponnambalamedu is located at a distance of from the Sabarimala Ayyappan temple. The summit of the hill is at an altitude of from

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. The hill is in the Goodrickal range of the

Ranni Forest Division The Ranni Forest Division in Kerala, India, was constituted on 7 July 1958, comprising the Ranni, Vadasserikkara, and Goodrical ranges, with its headquarters at Ranni. It covers the parts of Konni reserve forest and the reserves of Ranni, Goo ...

and has been included as a part of the

Periyar National Park Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (PNP) is a protected area located in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta in Kerala, India. It is notable as an elephant reserve and a tiger reserve. The protected area encompasses , of which ...

, a tiger reserve. Ponnambalamedu has been characterized as an ecologically sensitive area by forest officials in the region and has been identified as a critical habitat for tigers. The hill is also near the Kochupamba Power Substation, owned and operated by the Kerala State Electricity Board. The substation supplies electricity to the Sabarimala temple. Access to the peak of Ponnambalamedu is through an unpaved forest road controlled by local forest department authorities.

History

Historically, the summit of the hill was a place of worship for the local tribal population. The rituals of these tribes, most notably the lighting of Makaravilakku, were taken over by the Travancore Devasvom Board following higher number of pilgrims visiting Sabarimala. There are also reports stating that there was an Ayyappan temple at the summit of the hill which was maintained by local tribes. It was reported that these tribal people began the ritual of Makaravilakku by lighting large quantities of camphor and wood, and subsequently quenching the flame using a wet blanket three times at the time of the annual festival. After the takeover by the Devasvom Board, a platform for lighting the flame was constructed in the place of the temple. Today the annual festival is held at the Ayyappan temple in Sabarimala in the month of January. A ''holy flame'' is lit at Ponnambalamedu to commemorate the religious event. The event of Makaravilakku at Ponnambalamedu is witnessed by nearly half a million people each year.

Makaravilakku

Makaravilakku is the ritualistic lighting of a "holy flame" atop Ponnambalamedu during the annual festival at Sabarimala. This lighting of the flame at the summit of the hill marks the finale of the pilgrimage season at Sabarimala which lasts about two months. This flame is lit at the time of ''Deeparathana'' at the Sabarimala temple. The flame is lit using camphor at the summit. Makaravilakku, which was thought to be a miraculous event by most visiting pilgrims, was later proven to be a "make-believe" hoax, being lit by members of the Travancore Devasvom Board and local police, which eventually led to the deaths of many pilgrims in a

stampede A stampede () is a situation in which a group of large animals suddenly start running in the same direction, especially because they are excited or frightened. Non-human species associated with stampede behavior include zebras, cattle, elephants ...

References

{{Coord missing, Kerala Hills of Kerala