Friday, September 5, 2008

Main Offerings

1. Pantheeru Naazhi 2. Aravana payasam (sweet rice pudding), is one of the most important ‘prasadam’ (offering made to the Lord) distributed at the Neervilakom Temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa. It’s a mixture of fried rice, ghee, jiggery, raisins and cashews.There is an interesting story behind these prasadams. The Raja of Pandalam admitted Ayyappa to a famous Kalari (gymnasium where traditional martial arts of Kalaripayattu is taught) at Cheerappanchira in Cherthala in Alappuzha district. The young daughter, Leela, of Kalari Panicker fell in love with Ayyappa. But Ayyappa was so involved in his studies that he didn't notice the girl's infatuation. Soon the girl started bringing him food to capture his attention. Time passed by and the girl reached her puberty. And her family, following the Hindu tradition, prepared special cuisines to celebrate the occasion. One mandatory item on the menu is Rthumathikanji (porridge made using rice and five times the quantity of jaggery). On that day she took this porridge to Ayyappa, who was practicing payattu in the Kalari. He liked it very much and requested the girl to bring only the porridge everyday. It is believed that the practice of offering Aravana as prasadam to the God was born from this incident.3. Appam or Unni Appam is small round shaped rice cake sweet made from rice, Jaggery, PlantainBanana, Ghee etc. This is one of the famous Kerala Sweets and is a main offering to the Lord Ayyappa at Neervilakom. In the Malayalam language Unni means small and Appam means rice cake.4. Kadumpayasam is one of the importent naivedyam in Neervilakom sree Ayaappa Temple. It is called Kadum payasam because of the extreme sweetness. The preparation of kadumpayasam is almost like Aravana.5. Nirajanam (Thiladeepam) 6. Pushpanjali is one of the main offerings to Neervilakom Sree Ayyappa. The name "Pushpanjali" stands for saluting and offering flowers to God. In Sanskrit, Pushpa means "flower" and anjali means "offering with folded hands". So Pushpanjali means offering of flowers with folded hands. This is conducting inside the sreekovil by melshanthi in the name and star of the devotee, who offered the pushpanjali for Ayyappa.Vella Nivedhyam is also an important offering in Neervilakom Ayyappa Temple. Preparation is almost like kadum payasam, but without sweet and JaggeryPaal Paayasam. Panchamrutham.Abhishekam. Neyyabhishekam. Kalabhabhishekam. Pushpaabhishekam. Archana. Lakshaarchana. Sahsra naama arcana.Mukkutti Archana.Special Archana (for Sreechakram).Ganapathi Homam.Usha pooja.Nithya pooja.Ucha pooja.Mukham Charthu.Bhagavathi Seva is the most important offering at the Neervilakom Temple, but this offer is for bhagavathi. The ritual is being performed under the leadership of the melsanthi after deeparadhana.The ritual is conducted inside the Temple Mathurusala. Appam and kadum payasam are the nivedyam for the Bhagavathi. Arati will be performed on the conclusion of the ritual.

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