Rajarajeswari temple

 

Rajarajeswara temple Taliparamba Kannur ..in 2018

It was dusk when we reached here.

There was a reason for the same .

Women devotees are allowed into the Naalambhalam ie inner sanctum here only in evening (i hope no one files a PIL as all devotees are fine with it ).

The reason is in evening the deity is supposed to be in a genial mood with his consort .

The temple is ancient and has lot of legends behind it .

It also achieved fame by visits of political heavy weights like late Jayalalitha and present Karnataka CM and some cinema stars .

But Rajarajeswara temple does not need these mortals for fame .

Its other way around .

The main deity is Lord Shiva .

The temple is very strict in its rules 

No one can carry mobiles or cameras inside and hence my pictures are from outside only .

The men que was literally not there so i could go in and come out in a jiffy while the ladies que was long and tortuous .

Rajarajeswara temple is one of the 108 ancient Shiva temples of Kerala .

The temple has no kodi maram or flagstaff like most temples do .

The place Taliparambha is considered as a shakti peethams one of the places where a part of a dead Sathis body fell .

The story tells of how Sati committed suicide unable to bear insult to her husband lord Shiva by her father Dakshin in a yagna and lord Shiva in great anger destroyed Dakshin and his empire by opening his third eye and took satis body on his shoulders dancing the tandava for days .

The decomposing body was a great worry for all devas and lord shivas dance pointed to destruction of all worlds and devas appealed to lord Vishnu to save them .

Vishnu knew Shivas anger will not come down till Satis dead body was removed from him hence he cuts the body to pieces using his chakra and it falls in different parts of India and these places are called Shakti peethams .

These are legends however gruesome they may appear .

Its said that Lord Shiva pleased with prayers of Manchanda gave him one of three shiv lings ,he was told to consecrate it in a place where there are no cremation grounds and Taliparambha was selected and lingha was installed there.

After death of Manchanda the lingha sank into the ground .

His son Muchukunda prayed again ardently was given the second lingha and he too installed it in same spot which with time sank to the ground .

After centuries the third lingha was passed to Sathosoman who was a king of the kolathiri chirakkal dynasty who ruled these parts ..

On advice of sage Agasthya the lingha was installed by the sage himself and it did not sink into sands .

It was considered as a jyothirlingham .

Its said that lord Rama stopped here to pray on his victorious return from Lanka .

Lord Shiva is addressed as Rajarajeswara the emperor of emperors 

Devotees address him as thampuran Perumthirukovilappan .

The other legend is another version which says Parasurama a Vishnu avatar on his wanderings in Kerala which he created from the sea comes to this place full of vibrations and ruined temple asks Naradha about it who says the Devas once take the dust of the sun after reducing its heat by spinning it and mixing the dust with amruth creted three linghas which are offered to Godess Parvathi who gives it to the three kings mentioned who install it here .

Parasurama with help of celestial architect Vishwakarma built this temple .

Inside the temple as one circumambulates which was not allowed when we went due to some reason .

There is said to be a figurine of an yakshi or guardian angel .

In front of the inner temple entrance is the Rishaba or Shivas bull and the huge Balikallu with a lot of carvings .

On circumambulating one prays in directions of kanjirangat appan or lord vaidyanathan in one corner Godess bhadrakali in Madayikaavu in another and Goddess Annapoorneswari in Cherukunnu 

All these three temples were nearby and we had visited them .

I shall shortly write on them too .

In inner temple in front of jyotirlingham is an array of lamps and a bhadradeepam lit by sage Agasthya himself .

The jyotirlingham itself is most of time expect two times in the day one at nirmalyam at 5.30 am later at 9.30 am rest of the time its covered by Trinethram ,Shivas symbol of three eyes crescent moon and naghapaanam 

In the background is a golden prabha and on top a vyalimugham face of a mythical being .

The three doors of sanctum have lord Dakshinamoorthy as a mural on one side lord Ganesha and lord Muruga .

Godess Parvathi is installed too there is a legend here too .

Once Godess Mahalakshmi Vishnus consort comes to Rajarajeswara temple to pray to Lord Shiva who assumes form of Mahavishnu so that Lakshmis prosperity adorns the temple .

Thinking its Vishnu , Lakshmi enters sanctum and stands near Shiva and when lord Shiva assumes his real self she realizes the mistake and attempts to leave but Shiva asks his attendant to close western side door so shes with parvathi till vishnu arrives and takes her home .

In meantime the prosperity associated with Goddess lakshmi is empowered to the temple .

The thanthris of temple belong to four families or manas .

Poonthotathil pudayur mana ,eduvalath pudayur mana ,Eruvesi pudayur mana ,and Naduvath pudayur mana .

During Shivarathri which is most important festival lord Vishnu from Thrichambaram temple nearby is brought here in procession .

Temple is also known for its chakiyar koothu and koodiyattam perfomances .

During Tipus invasion two prominent gopuras were destroyed but before further damage could be done the commander of Tipus army who ordered the destruction of the temple was bit by a poisonous snake and so the destruction did not proceed .

However several Namboothiri families left to Trivandrum at this time .