Legend of Sankaranarayana Temple Navaikulam

Navaikulam, a small village in the Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala has a history as the place of Vedic studies. In ancient days, there were many Vedic scholars who used to stay over here and conducted classes. The word ‘Navai” is used to mentioned Vedic studies and the word “Kalam” means “Place” in the local language Malayalam. Thus the village got the name Navaikalam and later it has changed to “Navaikulam”.

Although this tiny village was once famous for Vedic studies, the present reason for it is very famous is the presence of Sankaranarayana temple. The concept of Sankaranarayana or a deity that has both the divine power of Sankara or Shiva and Narayana or Vishnu has come up during the 8^th and 9^th centuries. Many historians believe that it has come up as a measure to solve the long-pending rivalry between the Shivites and Vaishnavites. The legend behind this temple also points to the same thing. The legend goes like this.

Once, Lord Shiva along with his wife Goddess Parvathi, son Lord Ganesha and Sister Sri Bhagavathy went for darshan at Sankarankoil. On their way back they reached a place called Darshanavattom, a nearby place to Navaikulam. There Lord Shiva sent his sister Bhagavathi to search for an ideal place for him to take rest.

During her search, she came to Navaikulam and liked the place very much as it was full of sandal trees and flowers. Instead of going back to Lord, she decided to be there. Lord Shiva got upset as his sister did not return even after quite a long time. He asked Goddess Parvathy to remain there and went on a search for his sister along with Lord Ganesha. They say Bhagavathi taking rest at a place that has a serene atmosphere. Angry with her action, Lord Shiva caught hold of her by legs and threw her away and took that place. Bhagavathy fell a bit away from this place and got mutilated. She lost one of her breasts and even now there is a Bhagavathi temple a bit away from the Sankaranarayana temple. Goddess Parvathy remained at Darsanavattom and there is a temple for her even now.

Years after, when the locals found a divine power in that area, they tried to build a temple at that place. They approached the King of Ayi dynasty who was running the area. King agreed and the work progressed. When it comes to installing the idol, some people demanded Shiva and some others for Vishnu. As a compromise, the King told them to install the idol of Sankaranarayana in which the divine powers of Both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu will be there. Thus Sankaranarayana Temple came up.