At least 50 elephants today participated in the traditional 'Aanayoot' (feeding of elephants), held at the famous Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple here, considered the oldest Shiva temple in South India.
The ritual, which is second biggest festival in the temple after the famous Thrissur Pooram, is held on the first day of 'Karikadakom' month of the Malayalam calendar.
The elephants are lined up and given special feed, including sugarcane leaves, coconut, jaggery and the 'ganapathy homam' prasadam.
The chief priest, Kottampilly Narayanan Namboodiri, inaugurated the ritual by giving the first feed to 'Nandilath Gopikanan,' the youngest elephant.
Besides rice cooked out of 500 kg, pineapple, sugarcane, fruits and cucumber were the ingredients of the meals served to the captive elephants which participated in the feast, temple sources said.
State Devaswom Minister V S Sivakumar was also present.
A 'Homam' was also held as part of the ritual in which thousands of devotees participated.
There were tense moments when two elephants ran amok. However, none was injured and the animals were soon brought under control.
