Legend of Thrissur Pooram

Kerala is known as “God’s Own Country” not just because of the beautiful landscapes and greenery spread across the state but also because of the rich cultural heritage. Temple festivals are quite unique events, probably can be seen only in Kerala. Unlike many other religious festivals such as Deepavali or Shivarathri, these festivals are rather social celebrations than religious rituals. When a temple celebrates its own festival, people from the neighborhood gather there irrespective of caste and religion. In other words, the temple festivals are not confined to the temples but to the entire locality.

Thrissur Pooram, the largest temple festival in Kerala, which is regarded as the celebration of the state itself is held once in every year on the Pooram star day of Malayalam month Medam (April 14th to September 14th). The legend behind this festival is very interesting.

Earlier, “Arattupuzha Pooram” was the largest temple festival in Kerala. Arattupuzha temple is located about 10 kilometers south to Thrissur and the deities of all temples in and around Thrissur used to be taken to this temple on a specific day with a procession of caparisoned elephants. There at Arattupuzha, all such individual processions will join together and the people gathered there used to enjoy the traditional drums by hundreds of artists.

Once, some temples located in Thrissur could not reach at Arattupuzha on time due to heavy raining and they denied the chance to participate in the festival. Hurt by the denial, they came back and approached the then King of Princely State of Cochin, Raja Rama Varma (Better known as Sakthan Thampuran). Known for his bold decisions, the king arranged another festival on the premises of Thrissur Vadakkumnatha Temple.

He divided ten temples located in and around Thrissur town into two groups lead by two major temples, Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi. These two groups will assemble in the premises of Thrissur Vadakkumnatha Temple on the Pooram Star Day of Malayalam month for Thrissur Pooram.

Details of Thrissur Pooram

Thrissur Pooram is a seven-day festival and as many other temple festivals will start with flag hoisting. On the fourth day, there will be a “Sample Vedikkettu” which is a miniature display of firecrackers that are supposed to be displayed on Pooram Day.

The main festival is on the sixth day when the senior-most person of the Cochin Royal Family or his representative along with the chief priests of two temples, Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi visit the Vadakkumnatha Temple in the early morning and pray to Lord Shiva to remove all obstacles. By that time, small processions from different temples will start coming to Vadakkumnatha Temple. By noon the major participants, Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi will come to the Pooram venue in a procession of caparisoned elephants. Each will have fifteen elephants in their procession.

Now, both the team will get themselves arranged in the venue with 15 elephants on both sides facing each other. As the drum beats gain momentum, the mood will change from that of a festival to a competition. Both the sides will compete in displaying their artistic talents and imagination through the display of different types of umbrellas over the elephants. Once this event which is popularly known as “Kudamattam” or change of umbrellas is over, the pooram will conclude temporarily.

As midnight passes, the sky over Thrissur starts shining with the fireworks from both the teams. It will last until dawn. When the spectators start moving out of Thrissur on the seventh day morning, denizens of Thrissur started gathering there for the Mini Pooram which is considered as an exclusive festival for Thrissurians.

Legend of Thrissur Vadakkumnatha Temple

No introduction is needed for Thrissur Pooram, the grand festival which has become the symbol of Kerala culture and tradition. Procession of caparisoned elephants, the mind-boggling performance by hundreds of drum artists, and the sparkling fireworks of Thrissur Puram attract people from across the globe. This world-famous celebration is being organized at Thrissur Vadakkumnatha Temple every year.

The legend behind Thrissur Pooram and various rituals and customs related to the Puram festival will be discussed in another article. This is exclusive to talk about the legend behind the temple.

As told in many articles in this blog, Kerala has been carved out from the ocean by Lord Parasurama, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu and he donated the entire land to Brahmins as a solution to escape from the clutches of the sin of murdering his own mother.

After donating the land, Lord Parasurama visited Kailash. His intention was to seek the blessings of Lord Shiva for the people of Kerala. He requested the Lord to come to Kerala and to stay back there to protect the land and its people. Pleased with the devotion of Parasurama, Lord Shiva agreed. As soon as Parasurama left Kailash, Lord Shiva, along with his disciples and his companion Vrishabha started their journey to Kerala.

On the way, they traveled through a dense forest. The forest was so dense that even the sun rays will not enter inside even during mid-noon. All types of wild animals were enjoying a free life inside and the cruel animals became calm and bowed down on their knees as soon as they saw the lord traveling through the forest.

In between, they reached an open place, where there was a banyan tree standing alone. Many small birds were taking shelter on its branches and many small animals were eating the grass-grown beneath the tree. It was dusk and the birds, who have returned to their nestles after a long day’s flying in search of food started humming praises of Lord Shiva. Cows and rabbits enjoyed the song by moving their heads to both sides. A group of peacocks appeared there from nowhere and started dancing to the tune. Lord Shiva loved to be there in that serene atmosphere.

Understanding his master’s thoughts, Rishabha stopped there and the lord got down from Rishabha and sat beneath the banyan tree. This Banyan tree was believed to be there at the place which is known as “Srimoola Sthanam”. Even now there is a banyan tree there and the devotees will pay their respect there before entering the temple.

Parasurama came to know about the incident and he rushed to the spot. He constructed a temple in the open place near the banyan tree and consecrated the Idol inside it. He removed the power of Vishnu from it and placed it in a different sanctum sanctorum beside the one where the Shiva Linga has been placed. Then the divine power started emitting from both Vishnu and Shiva. Parasurama, blended both the divine powers with his tantric power and placed in another sanctum sanctorum in between the two and called it as Lord Sankaranarayana (Having power of both Shankara or Shiva and Narayana or Vishnu).

After a few days, Parasurama observed the divine power of Goddess Durga on the eastern side of the temple. He constructed one temple and consecrated Devi inside that. He also constructed another small temple on the northern side of the temple and placed Lord Vettakkorumakan (believed to be a partial incarnation of Lord Vishnu) for the protection of the temple.

It is believed that Jagad Guru Adi Shankara attained salvation at this temple. The legend says that after conquering the Gyan pita by defeating all scholars, he returned to his native place Kaladi and on the way back he visited Thrissur Vadakkumnatha Temple. He spent some days here. It is believed that he wrote the famous “Vishnu Padadi Keshasthavam” when he was here. One evening he was writing the 43rd of the line of the book. As he wrote the word “Padma” he breathed his last breath and attained salvation. It happened at Srimoola Sthanam. That is another reason for many to believe that Shankaracharya was a partial incarnation of Lord Shiva.

Ashwathama, son of Drona is an immortal being who did not have death. It is believed that he is visiting this temple regularly to get the blessings of Lord Shiva.