1891

The festival chariot is built

The parish's own history records that a festival chariot was built in 1891 — a thirty-five-foot timber ther, which that same account describes as carved of jackfruit, teak and neem by local sculptors. It was in use for more than a hundred years; the old car now stands as the cradle of the Pilgrims' Mother, and a newly designed ther has borne her since 2014. The chariot procession still draws roughly a hundred thousand pilgrims, many crossing over from Kerala, in the small hours of 15 August.