Hi All, Good Morning 🌼🌼 Today I want to share something I read about the temple ritual "Ashtabandham" which is done every few years to bond the idol to the pedestal. This ritual is mostly seen only in Kerala temples. "

Ashtabandham" means a mix (bandham) of eight (ashta) ingredients, a natural adhesive mixed with oil to fix if any corrosion forms between the pedestal and the idol through milk, water, curd or honey used during abhishekam. If the idol falls off from the pedestal,

it is considered as inauspicious, hence to prevent such an eventuality, usually once in every 12 years new Ashtabandam is applied and the bonding ceremony is known as Ashtabandakalasham. In Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple, this ritual was done in 1985 during the reign of

Sri Chithira Thirunal at the Thiruvambadi Sri Krishna temple. The preparation of the adhesive mixture takes a long period of 41 days. The eight ingredients which go into the mixture are 1) powdered conch (Shankhu podi) - 6 palam (1 palam = 60 gm), 2)

powdered chenchalyam or gum secreted from country pine - 4 palam, 3) Kadukka - 2 palam, 4) Kolarakku - 1 palam 5) Kozhipparal - 1 palam 6) River sand from Bharathappuzha - 1 palam 7) Amla - 0.5 palam 8) Cotton used for making sacred thread.