Thiru Netoor Mahadeva Shetram

 

Thirunetoor mahadeva shethram is a Siva temple in Netoor .

We had taken a ferry from Thevara to Netoor and from jetty just walked around 500 mts to cross railway line to reach temple .

An ancient temple said to be one of 108 Siva temples consecrated by Parasurama .

It has a very ancient feel to it .

Its vast around 5 acres with a seperate Vishnu temple .

Siva is form of Rudra 

There is avery big temple pond too .

The temple is famous for bali dharpan rites in karkidagam or during monsoons in june july .

We quickly went round temple as we had to get back if not to miss last ferry to return to Thevara ferry to our parked car .

Vadakanthara Thirupraickal Bhagavathy temple

Vadakunthara Thirupuraickal Bhagavathy Temple in Palakkad .

It was destiny that took us to this famous temple yesterday on 27 jan 2022 ,

We had gone for a wedding in nearby marriage hall and as we were early we went to temple nearby .

Only on learning its history did I know it was something which should have been never missed .

We thank Bhagavathy for giving us this oppurtunity to pray here .

History ..

The temple was built by kesari verma  Chera  king in honour of Godess Kannaki who on her way from Madurai to Kodungalur was supposed to have rested here for a moment .

( kannagi as detailed in famous Tamil epic Silapadikaaram was wife of a rich merchant Kovalan living in Madurai .

Kovalan falls for Madhavi a dancer and goes astray .

He loses all his wealth and tries to sell one of  Kannakis anklet with her permission ,as she remained faithful to her husband still .

But Kovalan is suspected by the pandya king Neduncheziyans soldiers as having stolen the queens anklet as it looks same .

So hes sentenced to death and beheaded by the king .

Kannagi is furious and confronts the king with her other anklet .

She accuses the king of murdering her husband falsely implicating him as a robber .

He had only sold his wifes anklet .

To prove this she breaks her other anklet to show it contained Rubies while all knew Queens anklets contained pearls inside it !!

The king is aghast at his mistake and commits suicide .

Kannagis anger curses the capital city Madurai and it burns to ashes .

She then crosses the border and comes to Kerala .The famous Kodungallur temple is associated with Godess Kannagi .)

Thirupuraickal Bhagavathy temple was later attacked by Tipu Sultan when he invaded Palakkad and devotees safegaurded the idol in Moothanthara .

That was done  by Moothans the clan of people who lived in a mix of Tamil and Malayalam cultures and had migrated from Tamilnadu .

There is also a legend on Pirayari temple too associated with this legend .

Moothans were also supposed to have bought Kannagis temple to Kerala and were her custodians .

The temple we saw was side by side to a Vishnu temple .

The wick lamps in front of Bhagavathy idol never gets blown off even during heavy rains and winds its said .

Every three years a famous festival the velliya vela takes place here .

The exact details of Moothanthara and Vadakanthara temples of Kannaki could not be obtained by me from different online sources .

If any reader knows I request them to comment on same .

As I did not know all these details and had no time to talk to any local the information is to be confirmed 

But it was a memorable visit indeed .

 

Achankoil sastha temple

Achan kovil Shethram 

On 19th February our day was pretty long .

We planned to go to Pandalam ,Kulathupuzha ,and Aryan kaavu and stay in Thenmala where we had booked in a sort of resort .

As planned we completed three temples and reached the booked place by afternoon but instead of giving us room booked they tried to pass off a non AC room for the rate discussed and for AC they increased price .

This we felt was cheating .

Luckily in all these new places we were careful only to block but never to pay online and book .

So we refused and drove off to Thenmala without much plans 

We had to go to Achan kovil which was more remote in a forest reserve and abit way off as we needed to enter Tamilnadu retrace to Kerala in Shenkotta and go by ghat section and forest section to reach Achan koil .

Luckily we got a very helpful person when we called temple who informed us of anew place to stay called Vaishnavi palace and we called and booked it  first.

Now the drive .

We crossed into Tamilnadu and saw Courtallam waterfall was very near so we went there but it was disappointing as waterfalls had little force and place was hot and dry .

So after taking couple of pictures we were back driving into Kerala and after Shenkottah entered forest and ghat section which was very scenic .

After along drive of around 2 hours we reached Achankoil even seeing a film shooting on way in jungle .

We took rest in our decent hotel and evening went to Achankoil temple .

Achan kovil is 40 km from Punalur and 30 km from Shenkottah difficult to approach .

One of earliest Saastha temple built by Parasurama here Ayyappa is in form of a family person with two wives Poorna and Pushkala .

Karuppan is Ayappas friend and bodygaurd has a seperate temple built for him in front .

The Achankovil temple is famous for treating snake bites using water from its wells and its chandanam or sandalwood paste  .

Priests see any case of snake bite brought any time here .

The temple was in a more inaccesible jungle in Kantha mala and it was brought here .

One famous ritual here is Kuruppan thullal 

During British rule one officer called it as superstition and stopped funds for the festival . He also kept hot chains under stage where ritual dance took place but the dance went off well and dancer took iron chains in his hand and made officer who had come there to watch the fun and he felt it ice cold suddenly it also burned his hands .

He regretted his behaviour and made many offerings after this to temple .

Temple is famous for its Appams and payasam .

We became very friendly with all staff there as in evenings very few were in temple and they gave us lot of prasadams .

We stayed that night in the lovely place after a country dinner in a quaint kuttans tea shop .

Next day morning we drove to Thenkasi on way to Thiruchendur temple in Tamilnadu .