Kalpathy Ratholsavam (2012) in Kerala

Kalpathy Ratholsavam 2012, popularly known as the Palakkad Kalpathy Chariot Festival, organized by Tamil Brahmins settled at Kalpathy village in Palakkad, Kerala will be held from 9 November 2012- 16 November 2012. This is a popular festival of our god’s own country that attracts thousands of people. From the name itself, I guess you have an important idea regarding the feature of this festival. Yes, the major highlight of this festival includes the pulling of rathas. If you have heard about the ratha yatra of Puri Jagannath Temple, I hope you have an idea regarding this ratholsavam festival of Kerala also. The Sri Visalakshi Sametha Shri Viswanatha Swamy Temple(Kalpathy Temple or Kasi Viswanathaswamy Temple) in Kalpathy is having an important place during this ratholsavam. Here the deities are Lord Shiva(Lord Viswanatha) and Goddess Parvathi. The kalpathy rathasangamom will be held before this temple on 15 November 2012. Though the festival starts on 9 November, the important festival Kalpathy car festival will be held only from 13 November 2012- 15 November 2012. More commonly we can say that kalpathy ratholsavam, a 10 day festival is observed during the Aippasi month. This festival is famous for the pulling of chariots from different temples, classical music concerts, traditional cultural programs etc.

How to get there?
You might be interested to visit Kalpathy during this ratholsavam 2012. Since the kalpathy village is located very close to Palakkad, the nearest railway station is the Palakkad railway station itself, located at a distance of 3 km. But if you are travellig by flight, Coimbatore airport is the nearest airport, situated at a distance of 55km from Palakkad.

As I have mentioned earlier, the last 3 days are the important days of this 10 day festival. The 3 chariots that carry the deities of Sree Viswanathaswamy temple will be taken out in a procession on the first day. The first chariot is that of Lord Shiva and Parvati, second that of Lord Ganesha and the third is that of Lord Muruga. On the second day, the presiding deity of New Kalpathy Temple, Lord Ganesha will be taken out on procession while on the final day, Lakshminarayana Perumal and Lord Ganesha, who are the deities of Old Kalpathy Temple and Chathapuram Temple will be taken on their chariots. The congregation of all this chariots will take place on the final day. My opinion is if you wish to visit a chariot festival in Kerala, then don’t miss your chance to visit Kalpathy.