Story behind the spectacular Thrissur Pooram Festival of Kerala

Thrissur Pooram is one of the most famous festivals of the Indian state of Kerala. History reveals a fascinating tale behind this festive celebrations.  Until the year 1798, the Arattapuzha Pooram was the most prominent temple festival in Kerala. Aratupuzha is a town located about 10 kms from Thrissur. Several temples from Kerala participated in this annual festival procession. Unfortunately, during one such festive days, few temples were not able to participate in the procession, owing to heavy rains. As a result, the officials of these temples were late for the procession, for which they were denied entry.

The officials felt humiliated when not allowed to participate and thus knocked the doors of the Maharaja of Mysore, Raja Rama Varma, seeking a solution.

Maharaja Ravi Verma was also popularly known by the name Sakthan Thampuran. In order to grant relief to the aggrieved temple officials, the Maharaja is believed to have unified the 10 temples situated around Vadakkunnathan temple at Thrissur and ordained to organise a grandeur temple celebration called the Thrissur Pooram. The Maharaja had also formed these temples into two groups called the Western group and Eastern group. The Western group was headed by the Thiruvambady Sri Krishna temple with the temples of Kanimangalam, Laloor, Ayyanthole, Nethilakkavu being a part of it. The Eastern group was headed by the  Paramekkavu Bhagavathi temple, with the Karamukku, Chembukavu, Choorakottukavu and Panamukkamppilly temples constituting this group. It was also decided that the Pooram festival would center around the Vadakkunnathan temple, with all these temples sending their  Pooram contingent (the whole procession), to offer worship to Lord Shiva, the presiding deity of Vadakunathan temple. The Maharaja had also framed the various events and programmes pertaining to the festive celebrations. This came this historical temple festival called Thrissur Pooram into existence. Even today, this festival finds greater significance in Kerala, as it is open to every common man, irrespective of their caste, creed or colour. By organising this mass festival as early as the eighteenth century, Shakthan  Thamburan not only propagated equality through his rule, but also voiced his strong opinion against the Brahmin supremacy over temple administrations.

-Radhikaa T V