Vadakkunnathan Temple

Share:

Overview : Vadakkunnathan temple is a God Shiva temple located in Thrissur which is the cultural hub of the state of Kerala. It is at least 1000 years old. The temple was built by Parasurama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Adi Sankaracharya was born because of his parents prayers to the presiding deity of the temple. Other names of the temple are Vrishabhachalam and Thenkailasam.Traditional architectural styles of Kerala were used for building this temple.On all four sides, monumental towers are present and also a kuttambalam.Vignettes carved in wood are displayed in the shrines and the Kuttambalam.Under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act the temple has been declared as a National Monument by India. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has recommended 14 sites in the year 2012, including Vadakkumnathan Temple and palaces, from Kerala to include in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There are numerous murals,within the temple depicting incidents from various Hindu epics and scriptures.The main venue of the Thrissur Pooram is the Tekkinkadu Ground which encircles the Vadakkunnathan Temple. About the Temple : A literary work of the 16th century by Neelakanthakavi, Thenkailanathodayam,describes a legend when after winning a strip of land from the oceans,Parasurama invited Lord Shiva to Kerala. The temple was a place of worship for Jains,before the advent of Shaivism.As Rishabha Deva is one among the Jain Theerthankaras, the Rishabha shrine is assumed to have been carried over from that period . Devotees worship the deity by clapping their hands and throwing torn threads from their clothes.Worshipping the deities follows a specific order,i.e., Vadakkunnathan, Parvathy, Ganapathi, Shankaranarayana and Sri Rama in a straight line and repeating the same order twice.For the third round there is the circumambulation for the latter two shrines of Shankaranarayana and Sri Rama.This is the first temple built by Parasurama who was the sixth incarnation of Vishnu.Entrance is not allowed to Non Hindus. Brahmanda Purana narrated the story of the origin of the Vadakkunnathan Temple. All these accounts have a slight variation but all agree on the central fact,i.e.,the temple was founded by Parasurama. Parasurama destroyed Kshatriyas completely twenty one times. In order to get rid of his sin,he performed a yajna.While concluding the yajna, he gave away all the land to Brahmins as dakshina. He requested god Varuna to throw up a new piece of land from the sea,so that could retire there for tapasaya.The linga of Shiva remained at the famous Sri Mula Sthana for sometime. Later on it was shifted to a more convenient place by the ruler of Cochin Kingdom and enclosed in a good temple. A different version is,at the end of the yajna, some sages approached him and requested to give them some hidden land.For their sake Parasurama requested Varuna,who gave him a winnow,i.e.,surpa and asked to hurl it into the sea,resultantly a large territory of land was thrown up by the sea.It was Kerala.At that time,it was called by the name "Surparaka",derived from the word, "Surpa" meaning winnow. One more account describes that when Varuna asked Parasurama to hurl his axe into the sea,he wanted to consecrate this new land.For this he went to his guru Shiva at Kailasa and prayed him to bless the region by taking abode in Kerala.Agreeing to his wish, Shiva accompanied by Parvati, Ganesha, Subrahmanya and his parashadas went along with Parasurama. Shiva stopped at Thrissur, for his seat.Later on he along with his party disappeared.At the foot of a huge banyan tree,Parashurama saw a bright and radiant Shiva linga . This came to ne known as the Sri Mula Sthana. After sometime the ruler of Cochin Kingdom decided to shift the linga to a more convenient place and enclose it in a good temple. Arrangements were made for the same.Initially there was difficulty as the linga could not be removed unless a large part of the banyan tree was cut.There was the danger of a piece of it falling on the idol while cutting the branches of the tree and damaging it.The Yogatirippadu came forward with a solution. He covered it completely by laying on it and asked the men to cut the tree. It was a great wonder that not a piece of the tree fell anywhere near the idol.Thus idol was replaced in the new place with all rituals where it remains till now. according to the rules laid down in sastras ,a beautiful temple was built. At the time of Perumthachan from Parayi petta panthirukulam,the construction was done. Perumthachan lived during the seventh century. Thus Koothambalam may be 1,300 years old.The temple was pre Dravidian temple Kavu ,according to Malayalam historian VVK Valath,. The temple was influenced by Buddhism, Jainism and Vaishnavism later on. In the initial days, Paramekkavu Bhagavathi was also inside the Vadakkunnathan temple.According to temple documents,Kodungallur Bhagavathy Temple,Koodalmanikyam Temple, Ammathiruvadi Temple, Urakam are older than Vadakkunnathan temple.The shiva lingam is not visible as it is covered under a mound of ghee.It is formed by the daily abhishekam with ghee over the years. A devotee can now see only a 16 foot high (4.9 m) mound of ghee made beautiful with thirteen cascading crescents of gold along with 3 serpent hoods at the top.It represents the snow clad Mount Kailash.The centuries old ghee has no foul odour and does not melt even during summer.There are shrines for Nandikeswara, Parasurama,Krishna (Gosala Krishna or Krishna as cowherd) Vettekkaran (Lord Shiva as a hunter),Simhodara, Ayyappan and Adi Shankara in the outer temple.In the verandah of the Nalambalam,there is a large white bullock Nandikeswara or Nandi bull.Circular structure is on the northern side with Shiva facing west. Parvati faces east and is behind Shiva in the same shrine. They represent Ardhanarishvara concept.In the south,there is a two storied rectangular shrine of Rama,who is the 7th Avatar of Lord Vishnu facing west.A third one, circular and double storied in shape,dedicated to Sankaranarayana, the combined form of Shiva and Vishnu and facing west is in between these two srikovils. "Mukhamandapams" are present at the front of all the three central shrines.Vasukisayana and Nrithanatha (Nataraja),the two important murals, are worshipped regularly. Ganapathi shrine faces the temple kitchen. Offering of Appam which is sweetened rice cake fried in ghee to Mahaganapathy is one of the most important offerings at the temple.