Attukal Bhagavathi temple

This capital city of Kerala came under an umbrella of smoke belched out by hundreds of thousands of firewood burning open-air ovens lit for a Hindu ritual.An estimated 2.5 million women lined up along the streets leading to the Attukal Bhagavathi temple, cooking an offering of rice, jaggery and coconut. The event takes place on the penultimate day of the 10-day-long "pongala" festival and is a local holiday in the district. The deity, Attukal Bhagavathi, is believed to be an incarnation of Kannaki of the Tamil mythology. The temple ritual attracted not just Hindu women from Kerala but women from abroad as well. The unprecedented rush for the festival began a few years back after the Guinness Book Records listed it as the only event where over one million women get together to take part in the festivities.