Pathanamthitta(Kerala)

President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday offered prayers at the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala here. The President, who reached Pamba in a special convoy at around 11 am, washed her feet in the Pampa river and then offered prayers at the nearby temples, including the Lord Ganapathy shrine.

Thereafter, the Melshanthi of the Ganapathy temple, Vishnu Namboothiri, filled the sacred bundle, or 'irumudikkettu' of Murmu, who was dressed in a black saree, at the 'Kettunira Mandapam'.

Besides the President, her ADC Saurabh S Nair, PSO Vinay Mathur and son-in-law Ganesh Chandra Hombram also got their sacred bundles, district officials said in a statement.

Subsequently, they threw coconuts at a stone wall near the temple, and holding their sacred bundles on their heads, they boarded the special four-wheel drive vehicles which carried them to the Sannidhanam along the 4.5-km-long Swami Ayyappan Road and traditional trekking route to the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

At Sannidhanam, she climbed the 18 holy steps to reach the shrine, where she was greeted by state Devaswom Minister V N Vasavan and Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president P S Prasanth. The temple Tantri, Kandararu Mahesh Mohanaru, received her with a poorna kumbha.

At the shrine, she performed 'darshan' of Lord Ayyappa with the sacred bundle on her head. Then the President and her team placed their sacred bundles on the steps of the shrine, and the melshanti (head priest) of the temple took their irumudikkettu for pooja.

After completing her 'darshan' at the adjacent temples including Malikappuram, the President returned to the TDB guesthouse for lunch and rest. There were restrictions on 'darshan' by devotees during the President's visit, according to TDB officials.

President Murmu is the first woman head of state to visit the Lord Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala here for offering prayers. She is also the second president to visit the shrine as before her, former President V V Giri had visited Sabarimala in the 1970s and had travelled to the shrine in a dolly.

She arrived at Pamba by road from the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium at Pramadam here, where she arrived by helicopter at 8.40 am. She was greeted at Pramadam by Vasavan, Pathanamthitta MP Anto Antony and others.

The President's convoy departed from the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram for the airport at 7.25 am.

After the Sabarimala darshan, she will return to Thiruvananthapuram in the evening. On Thursday, she will unveil a bust of former President K R Narayanan at the Raj Bhavan.

Later, she will inaugurate the Mahasamadhi Centenary celebrations of Sree Narayana Guru at the Sivagiri Mutt in Varkala and attend the valedictory function of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of St Thomas College in Pala, Kottayam district.

President Murmu will conclude her Kerala visit on October 24 by attending the centenary celebrations of St Teresa's College in Ernakulam. Murmu arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday evening for a four-day official visit to Kerala.

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She was welcomed at the international airport in the state capital by Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, other public representatives, and senior officials.