A big pilgrim draw, Guruvayoor also known as Kasi of South is famous for offering named thulabaram. It is the most famous offering of the temple, where a devotee presents to the deity their own body weight, the product can be anything such as banana or rice depending on devotees’ pocket.
Now adding variety to the tradition of offering ‘thulabaram’, a devotee weighed himself with 72 kg of Paracetamol tablets. While hundreds of devotees offer ‘thulabaram’ daily at the temple with a range of articles from bananas to jaggery, this is the first time that an allopathic medicine has been used for the ritual.
Satyan of Kuttoor in Thrissur district, who made the offering on the Eastern Street of the temple last evening, required 72 kg of pills to equal the balance with his weight. He sat on one of the scales of a balance while the other was filled with the pills matching his weight.
The ritual was performed in pursuance of a vow made by his father, who is a wholesaler of medicines.
Normally the thulabharam articles like sugar, banana or rice are used up in the temple or auctioned off publicly. Now as the offering has come in the shape of tablets, the temple officials are planning to use it at the Devaswom hospital.