Event Profile
Champakulam Boat Race is held every year at the Champakulam Lake in Alappuzha, Kerala. This is the first boat race of the harvest season of the state. The race is organized in the Malayalam month Midhunam on the moolam day, the day of the installation of the deity at the Sree Krishna Temple at Ambalappuzha. Champakkulam Boat Race is the most popular and oldest snake boat race of Kerala. This race is associated with a legend. On the advice of a royal priest, Maharaja Devanarayana of Chempakasseri built a temple at Ambalappuzha. But, just prior to the installation of the deity, the king came to know that the idol was inauspicious. The ministers of the king told a solution to the problem. They suggested to bring the idol of Shree Krishna, presented to Arjuna by the Lord Krishna himself, from the Karikulam temple of Kurichi. The ministers went to the place to bring the idol. While returning from the temple they spent a night at Champakulam to perform a puja. From there, boats of the entire area accompanied the idol in colorful, ceremonial procession through the lake to the temple. Celebrating that moment, the whole procession is enacted every year with the same enthusiasm. A line of boats festooned with colourful parasols and performing arts delights the spectators before the Champakulam Boat Race. After that, a proper race is organized in various stages for different categories of boats. The song of the oarsmen, the Vanchipattu, and the breathtaking Chundanvallom race are the other attractions of the event.
