हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Vadakkunnathan Temple, Thrissur

The great Shiva temple at the centre of Thrissur, held to be the first temple founded by Parashurama in the land he reclaimed from the sea. Its grounds host the Thrissur Pooram, and the temple with its murals is a national monument.

Built: Kshetra held to be founded by Bhagwan Parashurama; present Kerala-style structures largely medievalWhere: Kerala (Thrissur)Deity: Bhagwan Shiva as Vadakkunnathan, the lord of the north, under a mound of ghee10.52° N, 76.21° E
  1. Late 18th century
  2. 2015
Photo: Manukrishnan80 · CC BY-SA 4.0

01A linga of ghee

The linga of Vadakkunnathan is never seen. Centuries of abhisheka with ghee have built a mound over it some sixteen feet high, and the ghee neither melts in the Kerala heat nor smells. The kshetra’s tradition says Parashurama, having reclaimed Kerala from the sea with his axe, founded this temple first. The tradition of the Shankara sampradaya holds that Shivaguru and Aryamba prayed here for a son and were blessed with Adi Shankaracharya. Within the walls are separate shrines of Shiva, of Shankaranarayana and of Shri Rama, and a koothambalam, the theatre for Koodiyattam, with fine wood carving.

02Pooram on Thekkinkadu

The temple stands on a hillock ringed by the Thekkinkadu Maidan. Here, in the month of Medam, the Thrissur Pooram is held, instituted by Sakthan Thampuran, Raja Rama Varma of Cochin, at the end of the 18th century: the Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi temples bring their caparisoned elephants face to face, the parasols are changed in a duel of colour, and the night ends in fireworks. Vadakkunnathan is host but does not take part. The temple’s murals of the Mahabharata and its conservation won a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage award in 2015.

The life of this place

  1. Late 18th centurySakthan Thampuran institutes the Thrissur Pooram on the temple grounds.
  2. 2015The temple’s conservation receives a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage award.
Visiting

In the middle of Thrissur town; non-Hindus are not allowed inside. Men enter without shirts.

Nearby

Thriprayar Sree Rama TempleStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Thriprayar Sree Rama Temple

The first of the Nalambalam, the four temples of the four sons of Dasharatha that Kerala visits in the month of Karkidakam. Shri Rama here is four-armed and presides over the Arattupuzha Pooram.

Koodalmanikyam Temple, IrinjalakudaStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Koodalmanikyam Temple, Irinjalakuda

The only ancient temple in India dedicated to Bharata, Shri Rama’s brother. Its Koodiyattam theatre and its long Medam festival with seventeen elephants are famous, and its rituals follow rules found nowhere else.

Guruvayur Sri Krishna TempleRebuilt
The Mughal era and the resistance

Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple

The four-armed Vishnu of Guruvayur is worshipped as the child Krishna, and the temple is called the Dwarka of the south. Here Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri finished the Narayaniyam in 1586.

Uyyavandha Perumal Temple, Thiruvithuvakkodu (Thirumittacode)Standing
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Uyyavandha Perumal Temple, Thiruvithuvakkodu (Thirumittacode)

Five deities share one compound on the Bharathapuzha: four forms of Vishnu said to have been installed by the Pandavas, and Mahadev. Kulasekhara Alvar, the Chera king who became a saint, gave this shrine one of his most loved decads.