What is Thrissur Pooram? For the devotees, it is the moment when the Pooram goddesses meet; for the music lovers, it is the rare chance to see the masters in percussion artistry; to the elephant lovers, it is the majestic sight of the best caparisoned elephants; for some others it is the visual and aural glory created by firecrackers.

Thrissur Pooram dates back to Raja Rama Varma (1751-1805), popularly known as Sakthan Thampuran. He had been the de facto ruler of Kochi since 1769 and was its king during 1790-1805 and his palace was in Thrissur. After crushing the feudal lords who were against the state, and after the expulsion of the Zamorin from the state, he suppressed the Namboothiris who supported the Zamorin, by disbanding the institution of Yogathirippad which controlled the Vadakkunnathan and Perumanam Devaswams and took over taking their control. His measures of ensuring popular participation and empowering general public are seen in the organization of Pooram also.

The Thrissur Pooram is a people’s festival. While in most temple festivals it is the priest who rises the flag, in the Pooram it is the people who do it. In Thiruvambadi, it is the carpenter who made the flagpole who performs the flagpole pooja (a rare occasion when someone who has never studied tantra performs pooja inside a temple). In Parmekkav, the pooja is performed by the priest, but it is a pavarattani family that has to make the flagpole. Otherwise, the priest merely blesses the flag and people raise it on temporary flagpoles.

The different moments of the Pooram are the coming of Thiruvambadi goddess to the madam, the panchavadyam procession form the madam, the noon-procession of the Paremakkavil goddess, the Ilanjithara melam, the southern descent of both the parties, their meeting, exchange of decorated umbrellas, and the bursting of firecrackers.

Ten temples take part in the Pooram, which is essentially a ritual procession that begins with the procession of the deity from Kanimangalam temple. Although the main deities are the goddesses of Paramekkavil and Thiruvambadi temples, the processions of the other eight participating deities—Ayyanthol Karthyayani, Chembukkavu karthyayani, Choorakkottukavu Bhagavati, Kanimalgalam Sastha, Karamukku Bhagavati, Lalur Bhagavati, Naithalakkavu Bhagavati, and Panakkampilly Sastha—are called little Poorams. Pooram is the combined procession of all these temples. Usually, temple processions are held in their own temples; but in this case, procession is done in the Thekkinkadu grounds in front of the Vadakkumnatha temple of Thrissur. It is interesting to note that no religious rituals are performed there. What most people witness is only the exchanging of the umbrellas in the evening.

Originally, the processions that are part of the Thrissur Pooram were a part of Arattupuzha Pooram, which was organized in the month of Meenam. Different temples used to take part in this ancient festival. Once, because of extreme weather conditions, some participating temples could not reach the main temple in time and were banned from participating. Sakthan Thampuran organized some of these banned temples as well as other temples to start a new festival he organized in Medam 977 Malayalam year (1797 AD) in Trichur, his capital city. Eventually, it came to be called the Thrissur Pooram. Later, Arattupuzha could not continue its Pooram for various reasons. Some of the participants in the Arattupuzha Pooram who did not join the Thrissur Pooram organized Kuttanallooor Pooram on the Pooram day of Kumbham month. Although the practice of all the participants joining in and celebrating Pooram in the palace does not continues now, the sample bursting of firecrackers, which was its part, still continues.

The procession of Thiruvambadi goddess to the Naduvil Madom (madathil varavu) is associated with an incident. The rich Naduvil Madom family had three ornate golden forehead caparisons (nettippattam). When the temple authorities requested for these for the elephants in the procession, the cautious patriarch of the family proposed that it could be arranged when the procession reaches the Madam. There are no more golden caparisons; but the ritual continues.

Pooram starts with the procession from Kanimangalam temple. It enters Vadakkumnatha temple through its southern gate. The gate is closed for the entire year and is opened only on the Pooram day. After the completion of Kanimangalam procession by about 07:30 in the morning, other small processions will also begin arriving. The last in the procession is the one from Naithalakkavu temple. By about 08:00, procession to Brahmaswam Madom will start and will reach there by about 10:00; the processions will reach Naduvil Madam by 11:30 and when the procession reaches Naikkanal, the number of elephants will be 15. The Paramekkavu temple procession will also be accompanied by 15 elephants and by afternoon will reach the grounds through the Eastern gate.

At Naikkanal, the thiruvambadi panchavadyam reaches the crescendo. The famous Ilanjithara melam begins afterwards with hindreds of chendas, cymbals and horns in perfect precision creating percussionist magic. It is a majestic feast for the ear as well as for the eye as they musicians weave a splendid aural tapestry. By about 16:30, the melam ends and Parammekkavu, collowed by thiruvambadi makes their southern descent. It is followed by the face to face at Thekkinkadu grounds. The main event here is the kudamatam—the exchange of ornate umbrellas.

Kudammattam is the changing of umbrellas which takes place when the processions of the two main temples face each other in thekkinkadu grounds. In the early times decoration umbrellas were used on telephants. Once, Thiruvambadi surprised Parmekkavu by displaying colour umbrellas, made out of the clothes gifted by a devotee who returned from Madras. Surpirse, not stunned, Paremakkavil party bought olakkuda (palm-leaf umbrellas) which were for sale and displayed them. The incident marked the beginning of a fiercely contested item in the Pooram. Now, both groups try to outwit the other by an orchestrated display of multi-coloured, multi-layered umbrellas. Even expatriates from each temple groups hunt for variety and technology to add variety to this highly competitive engagement. Each year, both teams display more than 30 varieties of umbrellas.

The day Pooram ends with the bursting of fire crackers. The major and minor processions repeat through the night and the main firecracking begins at about 03:00 in the morning, lasting for hours. The combined procession begins at 07:00. The major functions end by about 12:00 when the deities take leave of Vadakkumnathan, in the background of yet another bursting of fire crackers.

About 100 elephants participate in the Pooram, as a part of the major and minor processions. As the competition for elephants increased, the government had to intervene to limit 15 elephants each for the major temples. These are the elephants included in the ‘Southern descent’. There is a great competition to be included in the selected thirty. Two lists of 15 are prepared out of the available elephants (excluding the elephants the temples own) to be divided between the two main temples. The method is simple: if one temple prepares the list, the other has the right to choose. There are stringent criteria for selection: height, grandeur, ear-movement, past record, crowd-friendliness, behavior in elephant group, and a detailed medical examination about potential misdemeanor. Great elephants who took part in the Pooram include: Kirangatt Keshavan, Thiruvambadi Chandrasekharan (who had the honour to be the bearer of the deity for a record 28 straight years before he died in 2002), Angarath Ramachandran, Kottilil Marath Gopalan, Kollangott Ayyappan, Kumbhakonam elephant Guruvayoor Kesavan , Kachamkurissi Kesavan , Kizhakkiveettil Narayanan & the recently died Paramekkavu Parameshwaran. The greatest honour an elephant in Kerala gets is to be on the right of the elephant that bears the deity.

Panchavadyam is headed by great chenda artists of Kerala. Parameswara Marar (who heads Thiruvambadi group’s Madathil Varavu), Chottanikkara Vijayan (who heads the Paramekkavil group’s Elanjithara melam) head groups of percussion musicians who compete with one another in the field. At Elanjithara, the required number is 222 musicians: 15 chenda in the front row, 90 right-side chendas keep the single beat, 21 artists each on horns and pipes, and 75 cymbalists. However, more than 250 artists do participate in this great musical feast. One has to compare this with the minimum numbers to understand the magnitude. Partipation of 150 artists make a great melam. In panchavadyam th required number for an excellent one is 22!

This year the pooram is to be celebrated on 24th April 2010 Just less than 30 days for this Great Extravaganza .Not only the Trichur City , But the entire world must be looking forward to have a glimpse of it.

Some people has started to celebrate a replica of Trichur pooram like Kollam pooram etc . But there is no replacement to Trichur pooram – The mother of all poorams.