Vadakumnadhan Temple

 Vadakunnathan temple ..Thrissur 

Once again Parasurama ,Vishnus 7th incarnate shines bright here .

When after getting kerala the land where his axe fell he distributed amongst the Nambudhiri families  .

He went to mount Kailas to pray to lord Shiva and requested him to come to kerala .

Its said Shiva and Parvathi , Ganesha and Subramanyan ,came upto Thrissur .

Suddenly they disappeared here and parasurama found a Shiva linga which he consecrated under a banyan tree .

The site of the moolastanam can be seen in the outer precinct of the temple even now .

Later the linga was shifted to a temple built by the  king of Cochin .

The temple was  constructed  around 800 y to 1000 years back as it was built by Perumthachan the divinely ordained carpenter ,who lived around 200 AD .

It was taken over by Calicuts king Zamorin between 1750 to 1762 .

Tipu sultan came here in 1789 though he destroyed many temples its said he left Vadakunnathan alone ,though he used its huge vessels to cook for his army and is said to have even offered a huge brass lamp when he left .

The temple is in top of a hillock in center of Thrissur city whose name comes from Thirusivaperoor the city of Lord Shiva .

The king of Cochin Shaktan thampuran who ruled from 1750 to 1805 drove away the Zamorin and took over the temple and town moving his headqaurters to Thrissur from Cochin .

He also started the famous Thrissur pooram as at that time the Peruvanam pooram was the most famous festival in kerala and once when the elephants from Thrissur reached late they were not allowed to be part of that years pooram !

Hence the king started it in Thrissur as a revenge and peruvanam pooram was over shadowed by Thrissur pooram slowly .

Strangely Vadakunathan temple is only a sort of judge in the great festival and it takes place in the vast grounds around the temple ,the Thekkinkaadu maidanam or teak forest .

The real festival is the competition between Paramekkaavu Bhagavathy temple and Thiruvambady Krishna temple in Thrissur under the benevolent gaze of Vadakunathan .

The Paramekaavu temple is opposite one gopuram of Vadakunathan temple while Thiruvambaady was a little inside 

Today the famous Swaraj circle encircles the Thekinkaad maidan and is the cwnter of Thrissur city itself .

The Thrissur pooram festival goes on for more than 24 hours with small processions of elephants with drummers merging  from smaller temples to Vadakunathan .

The paramekkaavu and Thiruvambady group after praying to vadukunathan occupy thier place in the maidan facing each other showing thier prowess in thier elephants ,decorations ,thier skills in the drum ensembles ,and as night sets in thier fireworks .

The Vadakunathan temple itself has four huge gopurams in each direction .

There is a huge Koothambalam inside the  temple reconstructed around early 19 th century by Velenezhy namboothiri as old one had broken down .

The koothambalam is a hall where temple dances like Nangiar koothu and Chakiyar koothu were held .

The inner sanctum has the Shiva linga one foot in height permanently covered in a mound of ghee and linga cannot be seen only the ghee given as offerings from devotees is seen .

Strangely the ghee never becomes bad and there is no foul smell .

Directly in the back of linga facing opposite side is Parvathy and both deities together represent Ardhanareeswara the personification of both genders .

There is a Sankara Narayana sanctum and one for Rama and Ganapathy in inner sanctum .

In the outer ring one finds Saastha the child of Shiva and Vishnu  ,Nandikeswara ,Gokulakrishna , and 

Shiva as Vettekorappan or as a hunter .

The temple has the magnificient koothambalam with a conical roof in outer ring .

There is a shrine for Adi Sankaracharya too .

Legend says Sankaras parents were childless for long and prayed for long in this temple .

Lord Shiva was pleased with thier penance and appeared before them and offered them a choice of either getting an intelligent great soul but who will die young or a child with all failings but who will live long .

Aryambha Sankaras mother agreed to have the intelligent child and thus Sankara was born with blessings of Vadakunathan himself .

The temple also has lovely murals mostly from Mahabharatha .

The temple was declared as a UNESCO Heritage site by Indian Archeology Dept in 2012 .