More Legends from Guruvayur Temple

Poonthanam

House of Poonthanam in Malappuram

The legends of the Guruvayur Temple will not be complete without mentioning certain incidents and about certain persons. Poonthanam and Melppattur Bhattathir were two such persons. Although both were devotees of Lord Guruvayurappan, he is believed to have a soft corner towards Poonthanam who was quite innocent and not a Vedic scholar like Melpattoor. Poonthanam has written “Jnanappana” or the “Verses of Knowledge “in Malayalam and gave it to Melpattoor for proofreading. Melpattoor was an eminent scholar in Sanskrit and he had a sort of disrespect towards Malayalam. Hence he refused to correct the book and told Poonthanam to learn “vibhakthi” (a part of Sanskrit grammar) first. Melapattur was writing his famous “Narayaneeyam” on those days and it was a practice for him to recite the verses he had completed each day in front of the deity. On that day when he went to recite the verses, to his utter shock he found that he cannot even open his mouth. At the same time, a small boy appeared there and started reciting the verses which he had completed on that day and started finding out many mistakes in those verses and started kidding Melpattur. After finishing it he disappeared suddenly. At the same time, there was a voice from nowhere saying “I love Poonthanam’s bhakti (devotion) more than Melpattur’s Vibhakthi (Grammar). Suddenly, Melpattur recognized his mistake and he went to Poonthanam and consoled him with so many words and took the handwritten copy of ‘Jnanappana’ from him and returned it after making necessary corrections. There are many stories related to these two devotees which will be told in later posts. Now it will be better to go with the legends of some special places in Guruvayur and special occasions and practices in Guruvayur temple.

Manjula aal

Manjula aal

Almost half a kilometer away from the east entrance of the temple you will see a huge banyan tree. It is called as the Manjula aal. Aal in Malayalam means banyan tree and Manjula is a common name given to girls in Kerala. The legend is that there was a girl called Manjula and she was an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna at Guruvayur temple. She used to present floral garlands to the Lord every day. Once she came late and the temple was almost getting closed then. The priests refused to accept her garland as they did not want to waste their time in closing the temple.

She got hurt on the behavior of temple priests and sat in front of the east entrance weeping. Seeing this Poonthanam came near to her and asked the reason for her agony. She explained everything. Touched by her innocence and devotion towards Lord Krishna, Poonathanam advised her to put the garland at the feet of a banyan tree approximately half a kilometer away from there. He promised her that the lord will wait there to accept her garland. She did so with full confidence and went back home.

The next day when the priests opened the temple to their surprise they saw a different garland on the deity which they have not kept on the previous day. Seeing the garland Poonthanam recognized it as the one Manjual brought on the previous day. He explained the incident to all and the devotees rushed to have a piece of flower from that garland. Since then the banyan tree, beneath which Manjula put the garland came to know as Manjula aal.

Coconut Abhishekam on the arattu day

On the final day of the temple festival, there is a custom to pour tender coconut water on the deity. The coconuts for this purpose from a family called Thampuran Patikal. There is a legend behind this. Thampuran patikal is a family belongs to the Ezhava community which was banned from entering the temple on the days when the discrimination in the name of the cast was prevailing. There was one Kittai, as the head of the family then.

Sometime back on the Arattu day (Final day of temple festival) Kittai was busy collecting coconuts on his farm. At that time one of the assistant priests from the Guruvayur Temple came there and asked for some tender coconut water. As busy with his work, Kittai did not heed to his plea and the priest went back. Suddenly coconuts start falling from the trees. Surprised with this Kittai got scared and he remembered about the plea of the priest. Fearing further curses, he came to the temple with almost 25 coconuts and explained everything to the temple authorities. To the surprise of Kittai, the authorities told him that none of the priests went outside the temple on that day. Then everybody realized that it was lord himself who went to Kittai’s house in the disguise of a priest because he wants to enjoy the tender coconut water. Then it made a custom to have coconut water abhisheka every year on that day.

Elephant Race at Guruvayur Temple

Aanyayottam or Elephant Race in Guruvayur

Elephant race or anayottam is another special feature of this temple. Elephants will participate in a race that starts from the Manjula aal which is half a kilometer away from the temple. The one which reaches inside the temple and touches the flag mast will declare as the winner, and it is the privilege of that elephant to carry the Thidambu or the holy idol which has been believed to have divine power, during the processions in the festival seasons. There is a legend behind this too.

Once Guruvayur temple was a sub-temple of Thrikkanamathilakam temple and the elephants were used to bring from here to Guruvayur during the temple festival. Usually the festival at Thrikkanamathilakam will end two days before the starting of temple festival in Guruvayur and the elephants will start their journey from Thrikkanamathilakam as soon as the festival is finished. Once they refused to send the elephants as the Guruvayur temple authorities failed to make the payment. However, on that night all the elephants broke the chains on which they have tied and started running towards Guruvayur.

Later Thrikkanamathilakam temple has been destroyed by the Dutch in 1755 and Guruvayur Devaswam got enough elephants. Still, to commemorate that incident the elephant race has been conducted every year even today.