King’s sword goes to T’puram for Navarathri

MADURAI: The ritual of handing over of the sword of the erstwhile King of Travancore was witnessed by scores of devotees at the Padmanabhapuram palace, which is under the control of Government of Kerala, in Kanniyakumari district on Thursday.

It is a ceremonial tradition to hand over the sword, which is preserved in the palace and taken to Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram for the festival of Navaratri.

T Mano Thangaraj, Minister for Milk and Dairy Development, Kanniyakumari Collector PN Sridhar and Kanniyakumari MP Vijay Vasanth were among those who took part in the programme.

The Minister handed over the ceremonial sword to V Muraleedharan, Union Minister of State External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, K Radhakrishnan, Kerala Devaswom Minister, K Anantha Gopan, president of Travancore Devaswom Board, MG Rajamanickam, secretary of the board.

After handing over, Mano Thangaraj said it’s customary to take out a procession of deities including Munnuthitha Nangai of Suseendram, Kumaraswamy of Velimalai and Devarakattu Goddess Saraswathi to Trivandrum for the Navarathri festival, which begins from October 23.

The devotees performed pooja and made offerings prior to the procession, which commenced with a guard of honour by Tamil Nadu and Kerala police.

The Minister then said the deities would halt at Mahadevar temple in Kuzhithurai on Thursday night and the deities would be handed over to the Kerala authorities at Kaliyakavilai, which lies along Tamil Nadu-Kerala border on Friday.

G Prakasan, Commissioner of Kerala Devaswom Board, E. Dineshan, Director, Kerala State Archaeology Department, Rathinavel Pandian, Joint Commissioner, HR&CE, Subbiah, Additional SP, Arulshoban, Chairman of Padmanabhapuram Municipality, and others were present, sources said.