Thrissur Pooram 2026 Date

About Thrissur Pooram

Born in the late 1700s when Sakthan Thampuran of Cochin gathered ten temples shut out of the older Arattupuzha Pooram, this 36-hour festival in Thrissur is famous for one duel: Paramekkavu versus Thiruvambadi, fought with elephants, drums, and silk umbrellas before the silent Shiva of Vadakkunnathan.

The heart of the festival is Kudamattam — a face-off, not a procession. Fifteen caparisoned elephants from Paramekkavu line up against fifteen from Thiruvambadi across the Thekkinkadu Maidan. On a signal, the riders raise and swap brightly embroidered silk parasols in rapid sequence, each design more daring than the last. The crowd's roar decides the winner. Before this, around 250 drummers play the Elanjithara Melam under an elanji tree in the temple courtyard for roughly four hours. Shiva, the host at Vadakkunnathan, never leaves his sanctum — the visiting deities come to him, beginning with Kanimangalam Sastha, the family deity of the Cochin royals. Sakthan Thampuran built the event as a secular one: the silk umbrellas and the pre-dawn Vedikettu fireworks are still made largely by Muslim and Christian craftsmen of Thrissur.