Legend of Kadampuzha Devi Temple

Kadampuzha is a small town in the Shoranur to Calicut road which is famous for the presence of Kadampuzha Devi Temple. Here the Devi is being worshiped as a huntress. Recently the temple came in limelight following the allegation of a leader’s family supposed to be staunch atheists performing a ritual are called ‘Poomoodal here. Actually, the temple is more famous for two rituals one is ‘Poomoodal’ or covering the deity with flower and the other is ‘Muttu Neekkal’ or removing obstacles that are being done by breaking a coconut in equal two parts.

Kadampuzha Devi Temple

The legend about this temple goes back to the era of Mahabharata. As the war was inevitable, Arjuna started his mission to collect as much as divine weapons to fight the likes of Bheeshma, Drona, etc. On his spree, he underwent penance worshipping Lord Shiva for ‘Pashupathasthra’ a divine arrow called ‘Pashupatha’. Lord Shiva, though pleased with Arjuna’s devotion, planned to test him before awarding the divine arrow. He and Goddess Parvathy came in disguise of a hunter and huntress in front of Arjuna. At the same time, a demon called ‘Mukasura’ was fast approaching Arjuna to kill him. The demon was in disguise of a wild boar. Noticing the boar, Arjuna and Shiva in hunter’s role sent arrows to it. Both the arrows struck at the same time and there aroused an argument between Arjuna and the hunter about who killed the animal.

At last, they decided to fight each other and decided that the winner will be declared as the killer of the wild animal. They fought for hours and Arjuna got defeated finally. Sad with his defeat and pain from the wounds, he collected flowers from the nearby bush and started worshiping a nearby stone as Goddess

Kadampuzha Devi

Parvathy. To his surprise, he saw all the flowers he places on the stone goes to the feet of a huntress. Suddenly he realized who they are. Falling on the holy feet of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathy he begged pardon for his wrongdoing. Shiva, impressed with his courage, talents, and devotion, presented him ‘Pashupathasthra’.

On their return, Goddess felt thirsty and Lord brought the holy Ganges thereby making a hole in the earth using an arrow. Katan Ambu eytha ala or the pit created with an arrow by the hunter later got corrupted to ‘Kadanambeythala’ and to ‘Kadambuzha’.

Another legend is related to Adi Shankara. It says that when he was moving aerial, he got stopped by an invisible wall. Looking down he saw a pit from which the divine power is oozing out. He got down to the earth and installed that divine power after performing the necessary rituals. He performed the rituals seeing the power as Goddess Parvathy in her furious form and the same has been worshiped here even now.

The deity here is made from a mirror finished ‘Panchaloha’ the alloy which is made by mixing five different metals. The radiation from this the mirror is believed to be too high and it is believed that the deity of Narasimha, which is in line with this deity, is placed there to soften the effect of radiation.

Legend of Parassinikadavu Muthappan

Muthappan, more commonly known as Parassinikadavu Muthappan is considered the personification of the divine powers of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. Being brought up as the adopted son of the feudal lord, Ayyankara Naduvazhi (who was a Brahmin), he revolted against the doctrine of Brahmanism. Hunting wild animals in the nearby forests and enjoying the cooked meat with the tribal people were his favorite hobbies. Being an orthodox Brahmin, his foster parents cannot agree with this. They tried their level best to tame him to be an ideal Brahmin youth but everything went in vain. Losing all the controls over the mind, his mother scolded him once and this made him angry. He displayed his cosmic figure in front of his parents and told them who he is.

He was an incarnation of Vishnu, who was left beside a temple pond. All this was just a play scripted by Lord Shiva as he wanted his devotee Naduvazhi to be blessed with a child. After revealing secrete behind his birth, he told them that the time has reached to fulfill the aim of his incarnation and he had to leave the house for it. Thus he left his house and started wandering here and there. It is believed that during these days, the power of lord shiva got associated with him.

On the way, he stayed at Kunnathoor Padi for some days. During these days he came across the toddy tapped in a pot and he tasted in once. The delicious taste of toddy made him a regular drunkard. He used to steal the toddy from the coconut trees itself. Once the toddy tapper, Chathan saw this act and he tried to attack with his bow and arrow. However, Chathan could not release a single arrow as he fell unconscious well before that. Seeing this, chathan’s wife came there and asked him to save her husband. She addressed him “Muthappa” with due respect and since then he came to known as Muthappan. She offered him boiled peas, fried fish, and coconut peels which are still considered the best offering in all Muthappan Temples.

After living at Kunnathoor Padi for quite some time, he got bored with life and decided to move to some other place. He sent an arrow from his bow and followed it. It touched the earth near the famous and beautiful Valapattanam River and the name of the village was Parassinikkadavu. He made it as his abode and lived there for quite some time.

During this time his foster father has expired and since he did not have any children, Muthappan went there and ruled his princely state for quite some time. After became the feudal lord of that area, he fought with other feudal lords to ensure freedom for their subjects. According to the legends, the aim of the incarnation of Lord Vishnu as Muthappan was to save the hapless tribes from the clutches of cruel landlords. After finishing his task, muthappan went to Puralimala and left his human body to go back to Vaikunta.

More Legends from Guruvayur Temple

Poonthanam

House of Poonthanam in Malappuram

The legends of the Guruvayur Temple will not be complete without mentioning certain incidents and about certain persons. Poonthanam and Melppattur Bhattathir were two such persons. Although both were devotees of Lord Guruvayurappan, he is believed to have a soft corner towards Poonthanam who was quite innocent and not a Vedic scholar like Melpattoor. Poonthanam has written “Jnanappana” or the “Verses of Knowledge “in Malayalam and gave it to Melpattoor for proofreading. Melpattoor was an eminent scholar in Sanskrit and he had a sort of disrespect towards Malayalam. Hence he refused to correct the book and told Poonthanam to learn “vibhakthi” (a part of Sanskrit grammar) first. Melapattur was writing his famous “Narayaneeyam” on those days and it was a practice for him to recite the verses he had completed each day in front of the deity. On that day when he went to recite the verses, to his utter shock he found that he cannot even open his mouth. At the same time, a small boy appeared there and started reciting the verses which he had completed on that day and started finding out many mistakes in those verses and started kidding Melpattur. After finishing it he disappeared suddenly. At the same time, there was a voice from nowhere saying “I love Poonthanam’s bhakti (devotion) more than Melpattur’s Vibhakthi (Grammar). Suddenly, Melpattur recognized his mistake and he went to Poonthanam and consoled him with so many words and took the handwritten copy of ‘Jnanappana’ from him and returned it after making necessary corrections. There are many stories related to these two devotees which will be told in later posts. Now it will be better to go with the legends of some special places in Guruvayur and special occasions and practices in Guruvayur temple.

Manjula aal

Manjula aal

Almost half a kilometer away from the east entrance of the temple you will see a huge banyan tree. It is called as the Manjula aal. Aal in Malayalam means banyan tree and Manjula is a common name given to girls in Kerala. The legend is that there was a girl called Manjula and she was an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna at Guruvayur temple. She used to present floral garlands to the Lord every day. Once she came late and the temple was almost getting closed then. The priests refused to accept her garland as they did not want to waste their time in closing the temple.

She got hurt on the behavior of temple priests and sat in front of the east entrance weeping. Seeing this Poonthanam came near to her and asked the reason for her agony. She explained everything. Touched by her innocence and devotion towards Lord Krishna, Poonathanam advised her to put the garland at the feet of a banyan tree approximately half a kilometer away from there. He promised her that the lord will wait there to accept her garland. She did so with full confidence and went back home.

The next day when the priests opened the temple to their surprise they saw a different garland on the deity which they have not kept on the previous day. Seeing the garland Poonthanam recognized it as the one Manjual brought on the previous day. He explained the incident to all and the devotees rushed to have a piece of flower from that garland. Since then the banyan tree, beneath which Manjula put the garland came to know as Manjula aal.

Coconut Abhishekam on the arattu day

On the final day of the temple festival, there is a custom to pour tender coconut water on the deity. The coconuts for this purpose from a family called Thampuran Patikal. There is a legend behind this. Thampuran patikal is a family belongs to the Ezhava community which was banned from entering the temple on the days when the discrimination in the name of the cast was prevailing. There was one Kittai, as the head of the family then.

Sometime back on the Arattu day (Final day of temple festival) Kittai was busy collecting coconuts on his farm. At that time one of the assistant priests from the Guruvayur Temple came there and asked for some tender coconut water. As busy with his work, Kittai did not heed to his plea and the priest went back. Suddenly coconuts start falling from the trees. Surprised with this Kittai got scared and he remembered about the plea of the priest. Fearing further curses, he came to the temple with almost 25 coconuts and explained everything to the temple authorities. To the surprise of Kittai, the authorities told him that none of the priests went outside the temple on that day. Then everybody realized that it was lord himself who went to Kittai’s house in the disguise of a priest because he wants to enjoy the tender coconut water. Then it made a custom to have coconut water abhisheka every year on that day.

Elephant Race at Guruvayur Temple

Aanyayottam or Elephant Race in Guruvayur

Elephant race or anayottam is another special feature of this temple. Elephants will participate in a race that starts from the Manjula aal which is half a kilometer away from the temple. The one which reaches inside the temple and touches the flag mast will declare as the winner, and it is the privilege of that elephant to carry the Thidambu or the holy idol which has been believed to have divine power, during the processions in the festival seasons. There is a legend behind this too.

Once Guruvayur temple was a sub-temple of Thrikkanamathilakam temple and the elephants were used to bring from here to Guruvayur during the temple festival. Usually the festival at Thrikkanamathilakam will end two days before the starting of temple festival in Guruvayur and the elephants will start their journey from Thrikkanamathilakam as soon as the festival is finished. Once they refused to send the elephants as the Guruvayur temple authorities failed to make the payment. However, on that night all the elephants broke the chains on which they have tied and started running towards Guruvayur.

Later Thrikkanamathilakam temple has been destroyed by the Dutch in 1755 and Guruvayur Devaswam got enough elephants. Still, to commemorate that incident the elephant race has been conducted every year even today.

Legend of Guruvayur Temple

There are many ancient temples in Kerala, but Guruvayur Krishna temple stands apart from all the rest with its many legends and myths. The deity itself is unique as it has been carved out from a special stone and it is believed to have done by Lord Vishnu himself. It is in his Majestic form or ‘Vishwarupa’. He presented it to Lord Shiva and n turn he presented it to Lord Brahma. King Manu and his were worshipping Lord Brahma on those days for a child. Being happy with their devotion, Lord Brahma gave the deity to them and asked to worship it with great devotion. They followed his instruction and Lord Vishnu appeared in front of them as he was pleased with their devotion. He told them that he will take birth as their son in their four births and he will bring the deity along with him in all these four births so that they can continue their divine worship in four births.

First, he took birth as Prasnigurbha, who appeared in front of Druva and created the planet Druvaloka for Druva. He is also responsible for giving Brahmacharya or Celibacy to the world. In the next birth, King and Queen took birth as Kashyapa and Aditi. Lord took birth as their son Vaman. In the two successive births, they came to earth as Dasharatha and Kausalya and Vasudeva and Devaki. On both the occasions, Lord took birth as their son, Sri Rama and Sri Krishna respectively. During his incarnation as Krishna, he took the deity to Dwaraka and used to worship it along with his wife Rukmini and his devotee Uddhava.

Days have passed and the time has come for Krishna for ascension to heaven. He asked Uddhava to handover the deity to Brihaspathy, the master of Devas (Demigods) to find out a suitable place and to install it. Unfortunately, Dwaraka has been swallowed by the great deluge before Uddhava can reach Brihaspathy. However, Brihaspathy came to know about the instruction of Krishna, and he, with the help of his devotee Vayu, the god of wind located the floating deity and took it and started searching for an ideal place to keep it. In their journey, they entered present-day Kerala where they met Parasurama, who was on his efforts to bring the same deity to Kerala. He took both Brihaspathy and Vayu to a place that was blessed with greenery and there was a lotus pond too. They felt the presence of Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathy too there.

Suddenly Siva and Parvathy appeared in front of them and gave permission for installing the deity there. Both Siva and Parvathy went to the opposite side of the pond which is called as Mammiyoor. Since the deity has been installed by Guru (master in Sanskrit) and Vayu (the god of wind) the place has got the name as Guruvayur means the place of Guru and Vayu in the local language Malayalam.

As Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathy went to Mammiyoor to provide a place for installing this deity, it is believed that the visit of Guruvayur Temple will not be completed without a visit to Mammiyoor Siva Temple. The devotees who are not able to go to Mammiyoor will pray to face the north-west direction where the temple is located.

Legend of Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple and Aranmula Mirror

Aranmula, A small agricultural village located on the banks of River Pampa is in the news headlines recently for the wrong reason. This peaceful village and its peace-loving denizens were leading a calm and quiet life until recently. If to say more clearly just before the proposal for Aranmula Airport has come. Destruction of ecology, dislocation of denizens, etc created a furor and a series of strikes, which are still continuing brought this tiny village to the limelight. However, even before this Aranmula Airport issue begun, this village has a space in the tourism map of Kerala. It is a pilgrim center as well as a tourist spot.

A scene from River Pampa

Wide paddy fields on the banks of beautiful Pampa River were a feast to the eyes of the beholders. Now, most of the fields are facing destruction due to this proposed Aranmula Airport. Besides the beautiful scenery, it attracted visitors with the famous Aranmula Snake Boat Race and various other cultural events and shows including Kathakali, the traditional dance-drama form of Kerala. Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple is the main attraction for the pilgrims. History or the legend behind this temple takes us back to the period of the great war of Mahabharata. After the war and after ruling the country for quite some time, the five Pandava Brothers appointed their heir Parishit as the king and began a pilgrimage throughout India. As a part of their trip, they came to Kerala also.

Attracted by the beauty of River Pampa and the peaceful atmosphere, they stayed here back for quite some time. At that time each Pandava brother constructed a temple each for worshipping Lord Krishna. Thrichittat Temple in Chengannur has been constructed by the eldest Pandava, Yudhishtira, Tiruppuliyur by Bhima, Tiruvanvandur by Nakula and Tirukkadittanam by Sahadeva. At the same time, Aranmula Temple has been constructed by the third Pandava and the close associate of Lord Krishna, Arjuna. The legend says that at the time of construction of the temple, different scenes from the Great War have gone through the minds of Arjuna. The memories were really touching for him as he spent all those most crucial days in his life with Lord Krishna.

Suddenly one particular episode started haunting him. It happened on the ninth day of the Kurukshetra War. Krishna insisted on Arjuna that he should kill Bheeshma on that day. However, Arjuna was reluctant as he stilled love his grandfather Bheeshma. Sensing the thoughts of Arjuna, Krishna jumped out of the Chariot and went ahead to kill Bheeshma with his discus (Sudarshan Chakra). Suddenly Arjuna ran near to Krishna and pleaded him not to do that as it will break the vouch taken by Krishna. Arjuna caught hold of Krishna’s legs tightly while pleading. Strangely, this scene was haunting him and he decided to install the idol in that form. Hence the deity is called Parthasarathy.

Aranmula has been considered as one of the 108 Divya Desams or holy villages by the famous Alwars, 12 saint poets as it is believed that it was here that Lord Vishnu revealed the secrete of creation to Lord Brahma.

The major attraction for tourists here is the world-famous Aranmula Vallam Kali or Aranmula Boat race. There is a legend behind the beginning of this water carnival. Once, rice and other agricultural products were transporting to the king’s palace from a nearby village. On those days, goods were transported mainly using water transport, and huge, manually driven boats were used for that purpose. It was quite common for the kings to collect such things from villages under their control. However, on one such occasion, the boat got stuck on the banks of Pampa. Though the laborers did all they could do, the boat did not move a centimeter. King came to know about the incident and he himself came there with a battalion of soldiers. Even those warriors failed to move the boat. Then the king brought one famous astrologer and asked the reason.

Astrologer revealed the truth. The boat got stuck on the banks of Pampa near Aranmula. There lived a family of Krishna devotees and they were leading a miserable life. The next day was Onam, the grand festival of Kerala and this family did not have even a piece of rice to cook. When the children started crying, hapless father and mother prayed to Lord Krishna at Aranmula temple to help them. The boat has been stopped by the lord and unless the king is not ready to part a chunk of these agricultural products with that family, the boat will not move.

King did as the Brahmin told and then the boat started moving. However, a Brahmin youth appeared there are told the king that there are several such people who are not able to prepare a feast for the Onam. He asked him to leave all the materials at the temple. Suddenly the youth disappeared. Believing that the youth is none but Lord Krishna, the king agreed. Thus the Vallasadya (feast) and vallam kali (boat race) started there.

Aranmula Mirror is another attraction. It is a metallic mirror with a front surface reflection. The alloy of this metallic mirror is still unknown to all except a family in Aranmula. It is believed that the ancestors of this family have been brought from Tanjore in Tamil Nadu for constructing the temple. They were well-renowned architectures and sculptures. They were working on different metals and metal combinations to create a wonderful crown for the idol of Lord Krishna. Accidently they got a good combination which has

high reflection power. Thus they made the crown. Unfortunately, they forgot the combination.

Being depressed with this they could not sleep also on that night. However, Goddess Meenakshi, their family deity appeared in the dreams of an old lady in that family and revealed secrete of the metallic alloy used in

the manufacturing of Aranmula Mirrors now. Aranmula Mirror is being considered as one of the eight auspicious things used in the “ASHTAMANGALYA” set.

When such a place with great cultural heritage goes into memory, certainly it will result in the total destruction of the culture. That is another reason for the people to fight against Aranmula Airport.