Chariots drawn through an agraharam: the Ratholsavam at Kalpathi in Palakkad

Background

The Kalpathi Ratholsavam, known also as the Chariot Festival, is the annual festival of the Sree Viswanatha Swamy Temple at Kalpathi in Palakkad. The temple is dedicated to Lord Viswanatha, a form of Shiva, and to Goddess Visalakshi, and its history runs back more than seven centuries. Incredible India records it as an annual celebration held in November, drawing devotees and visitors in large numbers. It opens with Vedic ceremonies and the chanting of scriptures, with traditional performances and music through the village in the early days. Its high point is the procession of large wooden temple cars, drawn through the streets of the old agraharam at Kalpathi. On the closing day the chariots are brought together in front of the main temple, which marks the ceremonial end of the festival. Kerala Tourism has listed this year's Ratholsavam for the fourteenth to the sixteenth of this month, and names the coming together of the chariots on the sixteenth as the day to be there.