Today, On 30th October, The Supreme Court has ruled that the ‘Udayasthamana Pooja’ at Kerala’s Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple will be held on December 1 as per long-followed tradition, noting that the sacred day-long ritual has been performed continuously since 1972.
The Supreme Court ruled that the ‘Udayasthamana Pooja’ at the Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple in Kerala will be held on December 1 as per tradition, without any alterations.
This special day-long ritual, celebrated on Guruvayur Ekadasi, takes place from sunrise to sunset and includes a continuous series of 18 poojas, homam, abhishekam, and other rites.
A bench comprising Justices J K Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi noted that this ritual has been conducted since 1972.
The court instructed the involved parties to finalize their pleadings and scheduled the next hearing for March 2026.
Last year, the Supreme Court criticized the Devaswom administration of the Sri Krishna temple for its decision not to hold the longstanding Udayasthamana Pooja on Guruvayur Ekadasi, citing concerns over crowd management, and questioned how such a decision could be made.
The court also interrogated the ‘thantri’ (chief priest) for consenting to alter the ritual, especially when he had previously acknowledged in a 1996 news article that the temple’s rituals were systematized by the Vedic philosopher Adi Shankaracharya himself, asserting that no deviations from that procedure are permissible. Udayasthamana pooja signifies the range of worship performed in temples from sunrise (udaya) to sunset (asthamana).
The temple administration had opted not to conduct the ritual on Ekadasi, claiming challenges in managing crowds and a wish to provide more devotees with time for darshan.
This ruling came in response to a plea filed by P C Harry and other family members with priestly rights at the shrine.
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They argued that Ekadasi is the temple’s most significant festival and emphasized that, although the Udayasthamana pooja has been conducted on Ekadasi since 1972, it has likely been performed even earlier.
The petitioners highlighted that these rituals were established by Adi Shankaracharya and maintained that any disruption or deviation could compromise the manifestations of the divine force or “Chaitanya.”