Goddess of Cheerma and the toddy tapper

It has been considered that the piece of land where there is no myths and the piece of land which does not have its own folklore is drier than deserts. If to go with this statement, Kerala, the southernmost state of India is filled with greenery as it has a huge treasure of myths and folklore. The most fascinating feature of Kerala Mythology is that one can find gods, goddesses, human beings, celestial creatures, animals, etc living together, interacting with each other. Here is one such tale which is about the origin of Cheerma Bhagavathi Temple at Kanakathur in Kannur district of Kerala.

Once upon a time entire area belonged to a single feudal lord called Kanakathur Nair. There were a lot of coconut trees in his farm and youth belongs to Theeya community was the toddy tapper of this farm. Toddy is a traditional liquor of Kerala which is made out of tender coconuts. Kannan used to tap the coconut trees. He was an ardent devotee of Kodungalloor Bhagavathi. Once, he climbed a coconut tree that was located near the road to take out the toddy from that. When he was pouring the toddy to the can he was carrying, a drop or two fell down by mistake. When he looked down, he saw a beautiful young lady passing by and the drops falling on her.

He was totally upset with that and climbed down immediately. When he searched for the young lady, he saw her a bit far from him. He ran to her and kneeled down in front of her and begged for pardon. He told her that it happened by accident and he did not do it purposefully. She smiled at him and consoled him saying that there is no need to beg pardon for a mistake which happened accidently. Then she asked him for some toddy as she was feeling thirsty. Without thinking twice, he gave the can he was carrying with him. She drank the entire toddy and walked away.

The land lord, Kunnathur Nair came to know about this incident. He was very angry that Kannan has given a full can of toddy to a strange lady. When he questioned Kannan, he did not answer anything, but begged to pardon him. Nair, who was arrogant by nature could not control his anger, he killed him then and there itself.

Few days have passed. Kunnathur Nair’s family started experiencing troubles. Unnatural deaths, quarrels etc have become a regular thing in that family. Fed up with such happenings, he consulted one famous astrologer. He explained that all these things were happening due to the anger of Kodungalloor Bhagavathy, the Goddess of Kodungalloor. And the astrologer told that the reason behind this anger is the killing of an innocent man who was an ardent devotee of Bhagavathy.

Suddenly Nair recollected the incident of Kannan. Now he was sure that the strange lady was none other than Kodungalloor Bhagavathy who came there to see her devotee. He also realized that Kannan has been killed because he gave toddy to Goddess. With heart full of guilty feeling, he asked the astrologer to suggest some solution. According to the instruction given by the astrologer, he consecrated the soul of Kannan at the place where he has been killed. He constructed a small hut also. Near to this place he constructed a temple and dedicated it to Kodungalloor Bhagavathy.

However, the goddess was not satisfied with these and the Kunnathur family disappeared from the earth gradually. After that, the temple has been controlled by the locals, mainly belonging to the fisherman community.

Brahmins were jealous about the divine power in this temple managed by another community and its development. First they propagated that the divine power inside the temple is not Kodungalloor Bhagavathy. Then they brought an expert Brahmin Tantric to invoke the divine power from that temple and to take it away. They invoked the power and kept it inside a copper pot. To the surprise of all, suddenly the pot broke with a loud noise. From that day onwards, nobody had dared to play with the divine power in this temple.