Legend of Chottanikkara Devi Temple

Chottanikkara, a temple town that is about 15 kilometers away from the heart of Kochi City in Kerala, the southernmost state of India was a dense forest once. Inside the forest there lived the tribal king Kannappan along with his daughter Manimanga. Since she lost her mother in her early childhood, Kannappan has a special soft corner towards his daughter.

Kannappan was a stringent devotee of Goddess Kali and he used to sacrifice a calf each on every Friday to Kali. Once he stole a beautiful calf from the nearby village and brought it to his house. Although it was meant for sacrificing the next day, Manimanga, his daughter did not agree for that as she felt an attachment to it. As he was not capable of hurting his daughter’s sentiments, Kannappan left the calf with Manimanga and went to catch one other calf. When he returned late in the night with another calf, he saw his daughter sleeping in the company of the calf he brought earlier.

He left the room with a loving smile as he did not want to disturb his daughter’s sleep. However, to his shock, he found his daughter and calf dead the next day morning. They were not only dead but also turned to a single stone. With a broken heart, Kannappan was not able to stay there for a longer period. He left the forest.

Chottanikkara Amma

Years have passed. The thick forest slowly started turning to the village as many people migrated to that place and converting land to agriculture lands. During such efforts to convert one specific area to agriculture land, a lady who was cutting the bushes rubbed her sickle on a piece of stone to sharpen it. Suddenly she saw blood oozing out from that stone and she fainted. The news spread fast and reached in the ears of a Brahmin priest who used to stay in the nearby area. He came along with an astrologer and they found the presence of Goddess along with Lord Vishnu in that stone. The priest went to his home and came with some food articles to offer divine power as a part of the ritual. Later the stone has been removed from there and installed at the place where it is now. The original place where the stone has found initially is still there in the temple compound and is being worshiped as Sree Moolasthanam.

The divine power in the idol inside the main temple is believed to be a combination of Lakshmi, Saraswathi, and Durga. Hence the idol will be adorned with different attires when the priests performing different rituals for each goddess. Besides, there is a presence of Lord Vishnu also there. Hence the devotees chant, “Amme Narayana, Devi Narayana, Bhadre Narayana, Lakshmi Narayana”. Here the word ‘Narayana’ denotes the presence of Lord Vishnu.

There is another temple dedicated to Goddess Kali a few yards away from the main temple. Keezhkkavu, as it is known locally came later. The story behind it goes like this. Once a Brahmin, who was interested in Kathakali went to Tripunithura to see a Kathakali show. Usually, the Kathakali will start late in the night and lasts till early morning. So he left his house after having dinner. As he walked on the street, he saw a beautiful lady who asked him a favor to accompany her till Tripunithura. The Brahmin, who was a womanizer really felt happy to have the company of a beautiful lady on the night journey. They both together walked a few miles.

Then the Brahmin told the lady that he had to visit his Master’s house to hand over a book which he was holding and asked her to wait outside the house. Brahmin went inside his master’s house. After a few minutes talk, both the Brahmin and his master came out. Seeing a lady outside the gate the master asked his disciple about her. He narrated the entire story. Then the master asked him to touch his forefinger and then look at the lady. When he did it, he saw a cruel Yakshi in horrible shape with a long tongue and extended sharp teeth. Then the master told him that her intention was to kill him and drink the blood. Fortunately, the Brahmin had the book of Lalitha Sahasra Nama (a book about thousand divine names of Goddess Durga) with him and with the power of that book, she could not touch her. Now he has returned the book to his master.

Realizing the trap in which he fell and seeing his death in front, the Brahmin requested his master to help him. He gave the towel which he kept on his shoulder to his disciple and asked him to run towards Chottanikkara Temple. He also insisted that he should throw away the shawl as he enters the temple. Brahmin did the same. He ran as fast as he can and the Yakshi followed him. He throws away the towel as he stepped one of his feet inside the temple and at the same moment the Yakshi caught hold of his other feet and pulled out of the temple. However, he managed to hold on the gate tightly and prayed for help. 

Chottanikkara Temple  Front View

At that time Goddess appeared there in the form of Kali and killed the Yakshi. Then she went to a nearby pond to take bath and after that, she sat at the place where there is the Kali Temple right now. This temple is famous for removing the evil effects of people. It is believed that a 41 days prayer by staying inside the temple will ward off all evil spirits in you.

There is a small temple inside the main temple which is dedicated to Lord Dharma Sashtha. Evil spirits with lesser magnitude will be removed there and the powerful ones will be removed at this Kali temple. Even now you can see a huge banyan tree with a lot of nails fixed to that. It is believed that the evil spirits are tied in that tree using nails.