Attukal Bhagavathi Temple: A Hidden Tale of Patriotism Too

On March 13/14 of 2025 in Thiruvanathapuram, the city of Padmanabha Swami the reclining Vishnu, which also happens to be the capital of Kerala, happens the world's single largest gathering of women.

It is a ten day festival. The ninth day is the most important. Millions of women gather from across Kerala, in all age groups. They celebrate the goddess through the boiling and overflowing rice partridge heated in the temporary oven made by three bricks and the fire from simple fire-sticks.

How did this originate? Who is this goddess? Increasingly she is identified with Kannagi. After she set fire to Madurai through the fire from her breasts, she is said to have come to the Chera country and then became the Goddess.

In Kerala itself her emanation starts with a vision that a member of a house called 'Mullaveedu' (House of Indian Jasmine) had.

It was in the banks of a river called Killiyar. A little girl wanted her to be carried across the stream by the person who had come to take bath. When he offered her to come to his house, she disappeared. Then in a vision he saw her again. He realised her to be a Goddess. She announced her presence in the form of a trident mark in the groove nearby.

In the popular form she is the goddess Badrakali on a Vetali - a quasi demonic quasi divine servant of the gods. Today she is Mahasaraswati as she is fierce Kali. She is the warrior goddess and mother of all.

Then there is another dimension to the goddess.

'Rev' Samuel Mateer (1835-1893) was a typical missionary of his age. A man whose zeal outstripped his comprehension, he left behind a legacy of meticulously catalogued misunderstandings and observations. He, like so many of his era, arrived with the conviction that salvation was a commodity he possessed, and the dark-skinned 'Hindoos', lacked it and, were in dire need of his trade.

One pictures him, quill scratching, brow furrowed, white-bearded as he diligently recorded the 'heathen' practices of Travancore, each observation a testament to his own cultural myopia.

His notes, a veritable museum of misinterpretations, now serve as a peculiar window into yester-century: a distorted reflection, perhaps, yet observations with data that can be discerned. A colonial fundamentalist, indeed, whose legacy is today more a study in the art of exquisitely documented prejudice and yet the documentation is important. He belonged to London Missionary Society (LMS).

According to him 'Attingal' the 'village and palace situated on the bank of the river ... , form the private patrimony of the Ranees.'

According to him this place was called 'Sree Bhágam',(sacred/auspicious portion), and was 'administered by the princesses through their káriakár or manager.'

The queen and princesses would come here once a year and would offer worship at the shrine. According to him the place became a residence for the queens of Travancore from 1305 CE (Malayalam era: 480). They also built the temple for the goddess 'Bhagavathi or Durga'.

Then he reveals a very interesting fact - that 140 British soldiers (mostly belonging to East India Company) were massacred here. This happened in 1721 CE.

The incident was recorded in detail by a Dutch minister Jacob Canter Visscher who was then in Kerala. Letters of Jacob Visscher were translated into English by Major Herber Drury in 1862. Major Drury was also an ex-Regent of East India Company for Travancore.

In this some light is thrown on a very less talked about incident in the history of Travancore - the notorious Anjengo massacre.

Usually it is attributed to the political turmoil that was brewing then in Travancore. The British had established a pepper trading post and had started trading and also employing their soldiers around.

Travancore was having problems as the feudatory confederacy of 'Pillaimar of Eight houses' and the royal family were not in good terms. The British trader William Gyfford was indulging in some malpractices which caused loss for the Indians and huge profits for himself. This is the usual reason given for the tragedy.

Visscher reveals another reason. Of course the economic problems too were there. While generally it was considered that the 'Pillaimar of eight houses' who plotted the massacre and the queen was unaware, Visscher's account is different:

But then the rainy season cut out this communication also. So the British had to come to terms with the Hindus:

Now the British wanted to placate the Queen. And she is always referred to as the Queen of Attingal. Clearly as the king was considered as the servant of Padmanabha, the queen of Travancore seemed to have a connection with Attingal Bhagavati.

The queen outwardly showed hospitality but declined to receive the gifts. She would receive them the next day. Visscher writes:

Some escaped 'coolies' went to the fort where the remaining British were present and alerted them. Had the Hindus continued their attack without delay they could have finished off all the British. But they delayed and the British were able to thwart any further attempt.

It seems, as per the account of Visscher the queen not only knew of the plan to attack the British but had helped the attackers in her own way.

The attack was made not by soldiers but by common Hindus who were angry at the way a Pandit was treated. Nevertheless the queen and the royal house could actually distance themselves officially from the attack. But the British seemed to have learned the lesson. Even though they repulsed further attacks, they did not make any retaliatory attempts.

With Marthanada Varma ascending to the throne the relations with the East India Company became increasingly friendly. Mateer writes that the princess had to surrender her power in 1740. Yet the king continued to honour the Goddess, a maternal yet martial protector symbolised by Her sword.

Mateer gives a detailed account of the Pongal festival as witnessed by him in 1881:

These are the preparations. And it continues:

One should note that various castes participate. Here by 'Shudra women', Mateer means the Nair women. This is an indication of the fluidity of the Varna system as well. Mateer continues:

The festival was a ritual of the King. Though people participated and rejoiced still it was a royal function.

With the proclamation of Chithirai Thirunal Maharaja of all places of worship being made open to all Hindus irrespective of caste the Pongal started gathering momentum and enthusiasm that we see today. This is an instance of how Sri Narayana Guru-Gandhian movement of temple entry naturally catalysed a mass spiritual phenomenon.

Attingal is no longer the temple belonging to women of the monarchy. She as she ever is, belongs to all women. All women are the queens. The Pongal shows the power of Hindu Dharma to move with ease from monarchy, an enlightened and patriotic one at that in Travancore, to democracy.

The ritual explained in detail by Mateer has transformed and adapted itself to the participation of the masses. The millions of women from all background, classes and castes, sitting together in the streets of Thiruvanathapuram around a radius of seven kilometres and all of them making Pongal is devotion, is Matru Shakti and it is Advaita in action.

The original royal festival was enacted in January - along with Makara Sankranthi Pongal.

Sri Lalita Sahasranama Dhyana Sloka says that she is 'Asesha Jana Mohini', She who attracts all humanity without leaving out anyone. We witness that in Attukal Pongala. Also 109th Name of Sri Lalita Sahasranama is 'Mahaasakthi' which Bhaskararaya explains as the one who rejoices in festivities. The transformation of Pongal as a great massive participatory women festival can perhaps best understood as Goddess Herself manifesting as the festival itself.

The monopolistic boundaries of sectarian religions also melt and evaporate as the fire makes the rice, jaggery and coconut put in the water of the earthen pot boil. She is the bricks that make the oven. She is the firewood. She is the fire. She is the overflowing Pongal that becomes the symbol for the sustained abundance we all seek as individuals and as children of earth mother.

Attukal Bhagavathi Pongal is thus a proof of Hindu Dharma as an ever living and evolving religion. In the seven kilometre radius where she is worshipped through concentric circles of millions of brick ovens pongal, by millions of women at the same time, with overflowing pongal, we know that she of the stream of Killiyar is also Jagat Janani - the mother of all existence.