Varahamurthy shethram

 

Varahamurthy Shetram Paniyur ,Palghat dt near Pattambi .

Went on 4 september 2021 

we drove off from Guruvayur to visit two ancient temples of Kerala .

The first one was Varahamurthy temple in Paniyur ,Kumbidi village ,in Palghat dt on way to Calicut or Kozhikode by road towards Valancherry .

As name suggests its a temple where Lord Vishnus Varaha avatar is deity .

The Varaha or wild boar was the avatar or life that Vishnu took to save the earth hidden in the primordial ocean by demon Hiranyaksha as per our scriptures .

Varaha dives into the sea in the universe (not seas in our earth as earth is buried in primordial ocean ) and brings up earth in his horns and earth is represented as Bhoomi devi .

Varaha has a boars head and a human body .

Now why was this varaha worshipped here ?

Parasurama again a Vishnu avatar yeons back gifts all he has to Kashyap to atone for his sin of killing kshatriyas or kings 21 times in anger for the injustice they did to his father .

He then raises land from seas by flinging his axe which is Keralam .

Unfortunately the land kept sinking so sage Narada advises him to worship Varaha to retrieve it and Parasurama thus consecrates the earliest temple in Kerala for varahamurthy .

One can call this even the first temple ever in kerala .

They say between 800 Bc to 1200 AD when the Perumals ruled .

From those days its very famous Paniyuran and aayiram paniyooran refers to the patronage to the temple for centuries .

The temple has been renovated rebuilt several times since then .

The greatest Temple architect and artisan of Kerala , Perumtachan has said to have added his final touches in this temple his last after which he threw his measuring road and chisel which is still preserved here .

The story says Perumthachan after losing his son and being guilty of his death wanders around and reaches this temple .

Hes miserable and hungry and asks the carpenters working in the temple for some food but they ignore him and go for thier lunch .

When they return they find many columns of wood marked and inadvertently cut them as marked not knowing Petumthachan had played a trick on them .

On cutting the wood most dont fit and the carpenters are worried about thier work as they retire for the night .

They realise the old man ignored was Peruntachan himself but cannot find him .

At night they hear hammering noises and find perumthachan had completed the work perfectly .

They tell him now that the work is over they will have no work at all.

For this Perumthachan laughs and tells them not to worry and blesses them that as long as the temple stands some work will be on all the time .

Which rings true .

Even now we saw some renovations going on .

Incidentally perumthachans chisel is preserved in between two granite slabs .

The temple is built in sylvan surroundings with fields rivers pond around it .

Its spacious with a typical kerala temple elevation .

It was a memorable trip indeed to visit this ancient temple with so much behind it .