Legend of Chettikulangara Devi Temple

Chettikulangara Devi Temple is one of the prominent temples in Kerala dedicated to Goddess Devi. The most astonishing feature of the deity here is that it has been worshiped as Goddess Saraswathi in the morning, Goddess Maha Lakshmi in the Noon and Goddess Durga in the evening. It is the number two temple under Travancore Devaswom Board in terms of collection. Sabarimala Sri Ayyappa Temple holds the number one position.

There are many legends behind the origin of the temple and the most popular one is as follows. Annual festivals in Temples of Kerala are of great significance and are being celebrated with great enthusiasm. Koyapallikarazhma Bhagavati Temple is another prominent temple in the nearby area and once the chieftains of Chettikulangara went there to enjoy the annual festival at that temple.

Temple authorities misbehaved with them and they felt humiliated by the insult meted out to them. The chieftains came back and decided to construct a temple there in Chettikulangara. They discussed the issue with each and every family in the village and all were of the same opinion. After taking the consent of the villagers, a few people went to Kodungallur Devi Temple to seek the blessings of Goddess Devi.

Kettukazhcha

They completed 12 days worship at the temple and on the 12^th night, Goddess Devi appeared in their dreams and asked them to go back to their village and construct a temple. She assured them that she will come there soon.

They reached Chettikulangara and started the construction of the temple. On one fine evening, the boatsman who used to ferry people across Karipuzha Rivulet was about to call it a day. He tied the boat to a tree on the shore and was about to leave. At that time an old lady came there and requested her to take her to the other side of the rivulet. She told him that she should reach Chettikulangara soon.

Being a good person, the boatsman took her to the other side. By then it was dark, so he decided to accompany the lady till Chettikulangara. On the way, they entered the house of a washerman family and had dinner there. By the time, the boatsman fell asleep. He woke up the next day early morning and the old lady was not there. Even the family members of the washerman family could not tell anything about the lady as they too fell asleep as soon as they finished their dinner.

The boatsman spread the news. In the very next day, there happened one more miracle which proved the presence of Goddess at Chettikulangara. Some repair works were going on in a Brahmin’s house in the nearby locality and during lunch, Brahmin’s wife called all labors for serving lunch. At that time a strange woman appeared. She had lunch from there and disappeared suddenly.

By that time, the chieftains have consulted a famous astrologer and he confirmed the presence of Goddess Devi there. In the very next auspicious time, the consecration of the idol has been performed by Padmapadacharya, a most prominent disciple of Shankaracharya.

Chettikulangara Kumbha Bharani

Kuthiyottam

Kumbha Bharani is the major festival at Chettikulangara and it falls on the Bharani Star day of Malayalam month Kumbha (Feb 15- Mar15). Kuthiyottam is a ritual art form that has been played by groups of boys. It is quite often offered to Goddess as an offering.

The devotees who are planning to offer Kuthiyottam will adopt boys under the age of 12 for a few days since the day of Shivaratri. Every need of these boys will be taken care of by the devotees who offer kuthiyottam, including food and accommodation. A miniature of a temple will be constructed at the house of devotees and special rituals will be performed there every day till Bharani. Boys will be trained in Kuthiyottam these days and whoever visits the houses of devotees who are planning to offer kuthiyottam will be provided food.

On the day of Bharani, these boys will be taken to the temple as a procession. 

Kettukazhcha is performed in the evening of Bharani Day. Huge procession with huge effigies of characters from Hindu epics such as Bheema, Arjuna, Ganapati, Draupadi, etc will be built and brought to the temple is well-decorated chariots in a procession.

There is an interesting fact about Kumbha Bharani. Usually, Hinduism favors vegetarianism and most of the Hindus will not have non-vegetarian food on auspicious days but it is just opposite on Kumbha Bharani day. Almost all households in and around Chettikulangara will prepare a special dish on this day with dried prawns and mangoes (Konchum Mangayum). This dish is an integral part of Bharani celebrations and there is a legend behind this too.

On one Bharani day, an old woman was preparing a curry with dried prawns and mangoes. When the cooking was half the way, she heard the drum beats of Kettukazhcha. She could not resist seeing the Kettukazhcha. She prayed to the Goddess Devi to take care of the curry and went out to participate in Kettukazhcha, leaving the stove on.

When she came back after a few hours, she saw to her astonishment that the dish is ready and the stove is off. There were enough wooden logs inside the stove which indicated that it has not gone off for want of logs and the dish was perfectly cooked. The news spread across the land and since that day, every household started preparing this dish on the auspicious day of Bharani believing that the Goddess Devi will visit their house to supervise the preparation.

It is believed that Goddess Devi will move to Kodungalloor to visit the goddess thereafter the kettukazhcha. Hence the temple will remain closed on the day following Bharani and will be opened only on the next day.

Meena Bharani

Just after one month from Kumbha Bharani, on the day of Bharani star in the Malayalam month of Meenam, Meena Bharani which is also known as Children's Bharani will be celebrated at the temple. There will be a children's kettukazhcha on that day which will have miniatures of effigies made on Kumbha Bharani day. These small effigies will be carried by children to the temple in a procession.