Devotees taking holy dip in River Pampa

Devotees taking holy dip in River Pampa.

The Pamba River (also called Pampa river) is the third longest river in the South Indian state of Kerala after Periyar and Bharathappuzha and the longest river in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore. Sabarimala temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa is located on the banks of the river Pamba.

The Pamba is considered as the Dakshina Ganga (Southern Ganges) due to its association with Kerala's Largest Pilgrim Centre - Sabarimala.
The River Pamba enriches the lands of Pathanamthitta District and the Kuttanand area of Alappuzha District.

Pampa originates at Pulachimalai hill in the Peerumedu plateau in the Western Ghats at an altitude of 1650 metres and flows through Ranni, Kozhenchery, Tiruvalla, Chengannur, Kuttanad, Karthikapally, and Ambalappuzha Taluks and finally empties into the Vembanad Lake.A famous Anjana temple is situated near this bank. This river enriches the Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha districts of Kerala state. Kuttanad, an important rice cultivating area in Kerala gets the irrigation water from the Pamba river. The Pamba basin is bounded on the east by the Western Ghats. The river shares its northern boundary with the Manimala River basin, while it shares the southern boundary with the Achankovil River basin.

Lord Ayyappan (Sri Dharmasastha) appeared to the Pandalam Raja as a child on the banks of the Pamba River. The Pamba River has been venerated as Dakshina Ganga, and devotees of Lord Ayyappan believe that immersing oneself in the Pamba is equivalent to bathing in the Holy Ganges River. Bathing in the river, believed to absolve one's sins, is a requirement before commencing the trek through the forest to the Ayyappan Temple atop Sabarimala.

Source: Wikipedia

This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com