Ayyavazhi rituals are the religious practices prevalent among the followers of Ayyavazhi. Most of them are connected with Akilam and Arul Nool and a few, though not associated with the holy books, are practiced for over a century right from the beginning of Ayyavazhi. Some practices are unique for Pathis and some others are common for all worship centres.
Forms of worship and the features attendant on them can be said to be manifestations and indicators of the type of religiosity present in a religious universe. Apart from Basement of Philosophy and Theology, the various religious practices of Ayyavazhi are also the pillars on which it stands to prove its uniqueness.
From the sociological point of view, it also strengthens both physically and mentally the socially downtrodden in a religious way. Several practices evolved in the Ayyavazhi tradition. Religious experience that was existent in Ayyavazhi seems to have expressed itself through certain forms with specific features as said in Akilattirattu Ammanai.
Vegetarianism
The practice of vegetarianism is one of the important facts among the followers of Ayyavazhi, seeming to have originated along with Thuvayal Thavasu. Some followers adopted partial vegetarianism. Today, vegetarianism is being strictly practised in one form or another by a section of the followers of Ayyavazhi as one of their religious observances. In particular, most of the Panividaiyalars (one who performs Panividai) of Pathis and Nizhal Thangals strictly follow Vegetarianism.
The vegetarianism is also activated and highly motivated by the narration of myth in Akilam. Five of the most serious non-vegetarian devils are converted into pure and vegetarian god-heads as Sivayis or Garuda for serving Vaikundar throughout the incarnation. Arul Nool too teaches one should be vegetarian to a high degree, or otherwise at least partially, especially during the reading of scriptures and during festivals and when practising rituals.
Also the Thuvayal Thavasu teaches one not only to be vegetarian, but also how to diet or control food-intake.
Muthirikkinaru and Muthiri patham
Akilattirattu mentions a well, situated near the place where Ayya Vaikundar undertook the tavam, and the prevalence of certain ritual practices around it. The well, situated at present at a distance of a furlong to the west of the main pathi (temple) at Swamithoppe, is the historical well.
Akilattirattu speaks of "the eighteen castes assembling in one place, and bathing from the same well". This refers to the prevalence of a seemingly innocuous practice of the people, gathered around Ayya Vaikundar, bathing together from the water of this well. People of different castes bathe together at this well, mindless of their social differences.
Physical closeness was necessitated mainly because of the smallness of the well. Besides bathing, they drank this water as a cure for their illnesses. They cooked their food with this water, and ate the food in a community feast. In the course of events, the well and its water seem to have acquired religious significance to the people of Ayyavazhi. The acts of bathing, drinking a few drops of it, and cooking the food with this water came to be repeated with a ritual fervour. People consider the well a sacred one, and the water as having miraculous powers to heal sicknesses, thousands of people having benefited. A couplet from the Sattu Nittu Olai of Arul Nool reads: "everyone is drinking the milk of the well around which miracles are growing". People considered it a religious obligation to bathe and drink at least a few drops of water from this well.
Currently, one of the important ritual actions performed by the devotees of Ayyavazhi is to take this ritual bath, drawing water from a well dug near every pathi. This has become a necessary ritual before one worships at the pathis. Devotees throng the well to get a few buckets of water onto them and drink a few drops ceremoniously a total of five times before proceeding to the pathi. This practice of bathing at the well is being addressed as patamitutal or muttiripatam.
Thirunamam
Thiru (word representing sacredness) + Namam (name) represents (The Sacred name). The people of Ayyavazhi wear a vertical white mark on the forehead in the shape of a flame, starting from the central point between the eyebrows, going straight up near the top edge of the forehead.