Legend of Vaikom Mahdadeva Temple

Probably, Vaikom Mahadeva Temple may be the only temple devoted to Lord Shiva which has been equally revered by both Shaivaites and Vaishnavaite. It is one of the oldest temples in Kerala where the rituals have never been stopped since its inception.

Vaikom is a temple town located in the Kottayam District of Kerala and about 32 Km away from Ernakulam on the way to Sabarimala. The temple is one of the most popular and one of the largest temples too in Kerala. The legend behind the temple is mentioned in the ancient text Bhargava Purana and the Sanalkumar Samhita.

Kharasura (The Demon with the name Khara) was an ardent the devotee of Lord Shiva and he went to Chidambara to worship Lord Shiva after attaining Shaiva Vidya Upadesh from Saint Malyavan. He underwent a severe penance there and pleased with his devotion and dedication, Lord Shiva appeared in front of him.

The Lord gave all the boons asked by Kharasura and also gave three Shiva Lingas. Lord asked him to consecrate the lingas at suitable places and start worshiping them. He promised that he will appear in front of anybody who worship these lingas and eradicate the agony and troubles.  Happy with the boon, Kharasura started his journey with three llingas.

He held one linga in his left hand the other one in the right hand. The third one he kept on his neck. On the way, he felt tired and sat in a calm and serene place to take rest. After some time, he decided to start his journey. When he tried to pick up the idols, he realized to his utter shock that they have got fixed to the ground.

Saint Vyaghrapada was following him invisibly throughout the journey and at this juncture, he appeared in front of Kharasura and asked him to leave the lingas there and start worshipping there. The linga which he was carrying in his right hand is believed to be the one at Vaikom Temple. The one in the left hand is the idol at Ettumanur Temple and the one he was carrying on his neck is the one at Kaduthuruthi Temple.

The fact that the distances from Vaikom to Kaduthuruthi and Kaduthuruthi to Ettumanur is almost equal, gives this legend a high level of credibility. Besides, the belief is that praying at all these three temples in a single day is more auspicious.

Later Kharasura attained salvation and Vyaghrapada Maharshi remained there worshipping the idol installed with the right hand of Kharasura. On an Ashtami day of Malayalam Month Vrischikam, Lord Shiva along with his consort Parvathy appeared in front of the saint and blessed him. Lord told him that this place will soon be called Vyagrapadapuram and will attract a lot of pilgrims.

Years have passed and the Saint too got salvation. Once, Parasurama, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu was moving by the sky, he experienced the presence of divine rays at a particular place on the earth. He came down and searched for the source of the rays and found it to be a Shiva Linga immersed in water.

He picks up the Linga and did rituals chanting many holy hymns. Pleased with this act, Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi appeared in front of him and asked him to construct a temple and consecrate the linga there. Lord told him that as the consecration was done by Parasurama, the Linga will have both the energies or Chaitanyas of Lord Shiva and Vishnu.

Parasurama constructed the temple and installed the linga. Then he called a Brahmin from a nearby village and handed over the temple to him. He instructed him on how to perform rituals and also taught him many holy hymns for performing rituals there. It is the same system that is being followed even today.

Closed Door at Vaikom Shiva Temple

There is a door in the western courtyard of the temple which always remains closed. Here is the legend behind that. Parasurama awarded the rights on the temple to one hundred and eight families. As time passed they got divided into two groups supporting and opposing the ruler. The quarrel between these two groups intensified day by day.

One day, one group was performing “Nivedyam” (Offering food to the deity) at the western side of Namaskara Mandapa when a prominent person belongs to the other group came there. He kept his apron (Melmundu) on the western door and went inside. He spat the beetle nut he was chewing into the offerings (Prasadam) prepared for the god and thus stopping the ritual he came out. When he took out the apron from the door, a highly poisonous snake appeared from beneath the apron and bit him.

He felled out of the door as if somebody has pushed him and died immediately. At the same time, the door closed automatically and a voice came from within the sanctum Sanctorum saying not to open that door anymore. Till then the door has not been opened and even now it is closed.

Legend of Ettumanoor Shiva Temple

Although the small temple town in the Kottayam district of Kerala, Ettumanoor is more famous with the presence of big Shiva Temple, it has the presence of the divine powers of both Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. It is believed that both these gods have visited this place personally.

There are many myths about the temple and the most widely believed one is related to the demon Khara or the Ramayana period. He had undergone severe penance to appease Lord Shiva and at the end of it, Shiva appeared in front of him. Pleased with the devotion of Khara, he presented three Shiva Linga idols to Khara and asked him to worship all the three regularly to get succeed in anything he gets engaged in. He started his journey by carrying two Linga idols in each hand and the third one hanging on his neck. After a while he got tired as all the idols were heavy, he falls down. As he was not able to wake up, he consecrated the two idols in his hand there. These are believed to be the idols of Vaikom Shiva Temple and Ettumanoor Shiva Temple. Then he took out the third one hanging around his neck with his teeth and consecrated that too. As he consecrated the idol by biting on it, it came to be known as Kadichiruthi, means put down with teeth and later corrupted to Kaduthuruthi. As the distance from both the hands to the face will be the same, the distance from Kaduthuruthi to Vaikom and Ettumanoor is the same. It is believed to be blissful to visit these three temples on the same day.

Another myth about the temple talks about the serene relation between the student and the teacher. Saint Pingala was running a Vedic school and he had several students. There was one poor boy with the name Khara Prakashan as his students. According to the system prevailed on those days, the students should give wealth to the teacher (Dakshina) on completion of education. According to that, all other students left the school after paying Dakshina to the Saint. Khara Prakahsanm being poor could not give anything and understanding his situation, Saint did not ask him anything too.

However, Pingala was not ready to leave the school without paying Dakshina. He asked his teacher, what he should give as Dakshina. Saint told him with great affection that his love and regard is a great Dakshina for him and nothing else is required. Without satisfying with this answer, he started pestering his teacher with the same question. Angry with the behavior of Khara Prakashan, the saint asked him to give one million gold coins each for each year he studied there. Poor Khara Prakashan shocked to hear that. He has completed fourteen years of education and now he will have to give fourteen million gold coins which he could not even dream about. He started repenting on his act and at the same time, Saint Pingala too got a guilty feeling for saying such a thing.

He took Khara Praksha to Vaikunta and started praying Lord Vishnu. At that time each god has come there and given one million gold coins each to Khara Prakasha and him in turn presented all to his teacher. At the end of it, Lord Shiva and Vishnu appeared in front of them. Then the saint requested them to be present on earth to protect humankind. They agreed and ask the saint to find out an ideal place for them to be present and to construct a temple. After returning to earth, both saint and his disciple started searching for a place and find a place near to the village of Khara Prakasha. There they constructed a temple for Lord Shiva and also for Lord Vishnu. It is believed that both Shiva and Vishnu presented there at the time of the consecration of idols by the saint.

There is one more myth about this temple which is more related to epics. As the demons got powerful, Indra, the king of demigods got worried and he decided to undergo penance to appease Lord Vishnu to gather more power. Pleased with his devotion, Vishnu appeared in front of him in the form of Narasimha (The incarnation of Lord Vishnu where he appeared as half man and half lion). Hearing the roaring of Narasimha, all the demons got scared and ran away from earth. As Narasimha could not get anybody to fight with, he turned towards Indra. Scared Indra started running and on the way, he met Sage Narada and described everything. As per the instruction of Narada, Indra start praying to Lord Shiva and Lord then appeared there in the form of Sharabham (A figure with bird’s head and wings and human body). Seeing the Sharabham, Narasimha became calm and then both of them blessed Indra. As per the request of Sage Narada, both decided to present at that place forever. Now Lord Shiva is present in the main temple facing west and Vishnu is present in the temple outside the main compound facing east.

This temple falls on the way to Sabarimala from the northern parts of Kerala and hence attracts a large number of devotees during the mandala season. The major attraction in this temple is “Ezhara Ponnana” or Seven and half elephants. These are the statues of seven elephants of two feet height and one with one foot. These statues are made of wood and covered with gold plates. A total of fifty-eight-kilo gold is being used to create these eight idols. It is believed that the King of Travancore has made these idols to present at the Vaikom Temple and it was being carried out to Vaikom from Thiruvananthapuram by water. When it reached near Ettumanoor, the boat got stuck on the sand bund in the river and did not move further even after a lot of hard work by a group of people. Then an astrologer came there and told them that, Ettumanoorappan, the presiding deity of Ettumanoor temple got attracted to these statues and will not part with it. Hearing this the King donated those statues to Ettumanoor.