Lakshadeepam - Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple

Featured here is Lakshadeepam, a ‘festival of lights’ held at the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The festival is a grand event, when the ancient temple and its majestic pagoda get bathed in the glow of thousands of lamps.

Lakshadeepam literally means ‘one hundred thousand lights’. This is held on the concluding day of Murajapam, a ritual held in the temple once in six years. This is a special ritual in which Brahmin scholars and priests ceremoniously chant Vedic verses for 56 days.

Murajapam marks the conclusion of twelve Bhadradeepams. Bhadradeepam is a seven-day ritual held twice a year in the temple. This was started in AD 1744 during the reign of King Marthanda Varma in the Travancore Kingdom, to which the temple belonged. The first Murajapam and Lakshadeepam were held in AD 1750 and since then have been held regularly.

The Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple is one among the 108 sacred Indian temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The video shows the Lakshadeepam held in 2008.