Overview

• June 8 ceremony will be the first Maha Kumbhabhishekam at the temple in 270 years
• Renovations mandated by a Supreme Court-appointed panel in 2017 were delayed by COVID and completed in phases from 2021
• Key rites will include consecrating new thazhikakudams, reinstalling the Vishwaksena idol and performing the Ashtabandha Kalasam
• Temple manager B Sreekumar said the consecration aims to reawaken the shrine’s sanctity and is unlikely to recur for several decades
• The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple’s cultural importance underpins Thiruvananthapuram’s identity, with the city named after its reclining Vishnu deity