Sreevallabha Temple, Thiruvalla (Thiruvallavazh)

01The brahmachari of Vallabha

The temple’s katha tells of Shankaramangalathu Amma, an old devotee who fed brahmacharis every Ekadashi. The asura Thukalasura kept them away. Vishnu came in the form of a brahmachari, killed the asura and stayed as Sreevallabha. Durvasa and the sage Khandakarna are also said to have had darshan here, and the temple holds that Durvasa still comes at midnight. Nammalvar sang Thiruvallavazh in a decad of the Thiruvaimozhi and Thirumangai Alvar in a decad of the Periya Thirumozhi; twenty-two pasurams are counted.

02Plates, walls and Kathakali

The Thiruvalla copper plates, a long Chera-period record in old Malayalam, list the temple’s lands, its feeding houses and the duties of its servants, and show Thiruvalla as a great seat of Vedic learning. The compound covers about eight acres inside high granite walls, with a gopuram on each side. A black granite Garuda pillar about fifty feet tall stands before the temple. A Kathakali stage faces the east gate, and the dance-drama is offered there by devotees through the night. Thiruvalla passed to Travancore under Marthanda Varma in the 1750s.

The life of this place