Special cover on Thrissur Pooram Kudamattam
The Thrissur Pooram is a magnificent festival, merging the spiritual and cultural essence of Kerala. It is known as the festival of festivals. Thrissur Pooram has a tradition of more than 200 years. The event was started by Sakthan Thampuran, the erstwhile ruler of Kochi. A resplendent festival celebrated with a grand display of caparisoned elephants, dazzling parasols, and percussion music is celebrated in the Malayalam month of medam (April-May), the pooram is held at the Thekkinkadu Maidanam in Thrissur.
Kudamattam or Exchange of decorated Umbrellas is one of the iconic events during the spectacular Thrissur Pooram. Kudamattam is one of the most memorable and exciting moments of pooram. Kudamattam is a friendly match between the Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi group, by exchanging beautiful and colourful umbrella, top of elephants.
After the Ilanjithara melam, both Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi group, enter the temple through western gate and come out through the southern gate (‘Thekkottirakkam’) and array themselves face to face at a distance from each other for Kudamattam.
Each group consisting of 15 elephants each decorated with elephant caparison, elephant accoutrements and other decorations and three people atop of each elephant, exchange colorful and crafted umbrellas competitively at the top of the elephants along with alavattam (peacock-feather fan), venchamaram (white gazelle-hair fan) and kuda (silver-sequinned parasols in all imaginable hues), in the presence of melam. The Kudamattam id definitely and eye catching experience.
There will be a huge crowd to watch the Kudamattam, probably biggest gathering of Kerala. The Kudamattam signalled the conclusion of ‘Pakal Pooram’ or daytime festival. This special cover released on 10th June-2022 ( KL/13/2022)
