Legend of Kadampuzha Devi Temple

Kadampuzha is a small town in the Shoranur to Calicut road which is famous for the presence of Kadampuzha Devi Temple. Here the Devi is being worshiped as a huntress. Recently the temple came in limelight following the allegation of a leader’s family supposed to be staunch atheists performing a ritual are called ‘Poomoodal here. Actually, the temple is more famous for two rituals one is ‘Poomoodal’ or covering the deity with flower and the other is ‘Muttu Neekkal’ or removing obstacles that are being done by breaking a coconut in equal two parts.

Kadampuzha Devi Temple

The legend about this temple goes back to the era of Mahabharata. As the war was inevitable, Arjuna started his mission to collect as much as divine weapons to fight the likes of Bheeshma, Drona, etc. On his spree, he underwent penance worshipping Lord Shiva for ‘Pashupathasthra’ a divine arrow called ‘Pashupatha’. Lord Shiva, though pleased with Arjuna’s devotion, planned to test him before awarding the divine arrow. He and Goddess Parvathy came in disguise of a hunter and huntress in front of Arjuna. At the same time, a demon called ‘Mukasura’ was fast approaching Arjuna to kill him. The demon was in disguise of a wild boar. Noticing the boar, Arjuna and Shiva in hunter’s role sent arrows to it. Both the arrows struck at the same time and there aroused an argument between Arjuna and the hunter about who killed the animal.

At last, they decided to fight each other and decided that the winner will be declared as the killer of the wild animal. They fought for hours and Arjuna got defeated finally. Sad with his defeat and pain from the wounds, he collected flowers from the nearby bush and started worshiping a nearby stone as Goddess

Kadampuzha Devi

Parvathy. To his surprise, he saw all the flowers he places on the stone goes to the feet of a huntress. Suddenly he realized who they are. Falling on the holy feet of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathy he begged pardon for his wrongdoing. Shiva, impressed with his courage, talents, and devotion, presented him ‘Pashupathasthra’.

On their return, Goddess felt thirsty and Lord brought the holy Ganges thereby making a hole in the earth using an arrow. Katan Ambu eytha ala or the pit created with an arrow by the hunter later got corrupted to ‘Kadanambeythala’ and to ‘Kadambuzha’.

Another legend is related to Adi Shankara. It says that when he was moving aerial, he got stopped by an invisible wall. Looking down he saw a pit from which the divine power is oozing out. He got down to the earth and installed that divine power after performing the necessary rituals. He performed the rituals seeing the power as Goddess Parvathy in her furious form and the same has been worshiped here even now.

The deity here is made from a mirror finished ‘Panchaloha’ the alloy which is made by mixing five different metals. The radiation from this the mirror is believed to be too high and it is believed that the deity of Narasimha, which is in line with this deity, is placed there to soften the effect of radiation.