Temples, big and small, all enjoy the respect and attention here in India. They are the extravagant affair and becoming kind of a brand ambassador. The sentiments and the emotional quotient for the Temples in India, is all time high, and Kerala, a land forming the coast for Arabian Sea, with wonderful beaches and the magnificent temples is famous for the ornate and flashy festivals, and the annually held Pooram festival is the most frenzied and a grand do held in the town called Thrissur located in the center of the state. The high strung drama is all we can see where the embellished elephants standing in a row are the center of all the attention and wooing.
With them ear shattering drummers and the orchestras, disguised and animated dance troops, the splendid and plush firework all which may sound normal can actually be a loud and bizarre proceeding for one who is inexperienced and it may lead you to insanity in that extra hot and humid weather that awaits monsoons during this time of the year. Held in between mid April to mid of May (in the month of Medam as per the Malayam Calander) this festival is observed for 36 hours starts very early in the morning, where representatives from the two temples called the Tiruvambadi (western group) and Paramekkavu (eastern group) assemble and bring on there brigade of almost fifteen or more elephants each, as they stand in neat rows.

These elephants are all caparisoned with the golden headgears, ridden by Brahmin Priests who are all charged up and carry whisks made of yak hair, peacock feather fans, radiant and colourful parasols making up the mood of all present there, and this is one of the occasion that makes up the largest gathering of people and the elephants.
And then with these elephants are standing there attendants in the center of both the rows, seriously holding the deity of each temple, just like you hold the banner of your school when going for a match. And the band of hundreds of drummers, and the cymbal crashers who beat the drums and crash the cymbals with such great velocity and electrifying speed, and the trumpet (Khuzal) all team up to create a music which may seems chaotic and blaring but eventually sets in an organized symphony but still deafening.
But this does not end here as the music waves to distinct tempo and the fastest rhythm prompt the elephants to standup and brandish there feather fans and hair whisks in coordinated manner and with this the music blasts, becoming loudest and dissonant. This is the peak for uninitiated visitors like us who feel that this high fever bash can’t go up any further, just at this point firework boom and the local crowd cheer loudly all of them in high spirit, snapping punches in the air, and while others advance forward with the procession following the drum beats. With fastest drum beats, the procession moves forwards before stopping to start with the whole new cycle again.

The 200 years old history goes like this- Sakthan Thampuran (1798) ruler of Cochin made a venue for the temples of his ruling area to celebrate their festival. Prior to this festival, another largest temple festival was held during summer in Thrissur, which was a day festival. Temples in and around Thrissur were regular participants, until they were denied access by the chief of one of the village there. This caused the main priest of Vadakkunnathan temple, started this festival in Thrissur.
Later Sakthan Thampuran the king unified 10 temples, and ordained them in two groups the eastern and western groups forming the Tiruvambadi and Paramekkavu groups and this not so old festival is one of the tumultuous festivals in India I have ever witnessed.
But this sure is one of the festivals of India, which may look awkward and unusual, still underlines the deep rooted sentiment for religion and their own gods, which now seems to be missing in our so-called modern world and that’s called the true spirit of India.

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