Ayyappa Mandala Puja 2020

Ayyappa Mandala Puja — the Mandala Kalam — is the 41-day vratam observed by devotees of Lord Ayyappa of Sabarimala, beginning on the day the Sun enters Vrischika rasi (the start of the Tamil month of Karthikai) and continuing for 41 days.

Devotees who take up the vratam wear a black or blue mala (the Ayyappa mala), observe strict celibacy and dietary discipline, sleep on the floor, and address one another as Ayyappa or Swami for the duration. The vratam builds toward pilgrimage to the Sabarimala temple, culminating in the Makara Sankranti/Makara Vilakku season that follows.

Because the vratam is anchored to the Sun's own transit, its start date is a solar (not lunar) event — the same civil-day attribution used throughout this site for any Sankranti: if the Sun enters Vrischika before that day's sunset, that day itself is the start; if the transit happens after sunset, the vratam begins the following day instead.