Devotees Throng Mandaikadu Shrine As Annual

The 10-day "Koda" festival at the famed Mondaikad Bhagavathy Amman temple in this coastal town began on Monday with the traditional flag-hoisting ceremony in the presence of thousands of devotees, mostly from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The temple Tantri Edakkode Sankaranarayanan  initiated the festival rituals in the morning, amid the chants of “Amme Saranam, Devi Saranam’. Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Tamil Nadu Ministers P K Shekhar Babu and Mano Thangaraj, Vijay Vasanth MP were among those present on the occasion.

The legendary Koda will take place on March 14 and attended by lakhs of devotees from the various regions of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. “Valiyapadukka,” a major mid-night ritual of the festival, will be performed on March 10 and the procession of “Valiya Theevatti” on March 13, before the festival concludes with the “Odukku Pooja” at midnight on March 14.Although devotees offer ‘pongala’ at the temple daily, on festival days their numbers swell to thousands. During the festival season, thousands of devotees reach Mondaikad from south Kerala. In view of this, the Tamil Nadu government has made elaborate arrangements to regulate the flow of pilgrims. 

Special inter-state bus services are operated between Thiruvananthapuram and Mondaikad by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation.The Mondaikad Devi temple is situated on the Arabian sea coast near Colachel of the erstwhile Travancore princely state. Despite being in Tamil Nadu’s Kanniyakumari district, the temple and its festivals are run as per the rituals and traditions followed in Kerala. It was in 1803 that the former ruler of Travancore took over the administration of the temple. The temple is now administered by Kanniyakumari Devaswom Board.