Malappuram

The Legend about the origin of the temple is associated with the popular episode in “Mahabharatha” where Arjuna does penance in Kamyakavanam to appease Lord Shiva to obtain the divine weapon “Paasupathastra”. Lord Shiva approaches Arjuna as a hunter ie. Kiratha with His divine consort Sreeparvathy escorting Him as a huntress, Kirathi. Arjuna is challenged by the Lord in disguise to test the skills of the boon seeker.

In the fierce battle between Lord Shiva (Kiratha) and Arjuna, the arrows that Arjuna showered on Lord Shiva miraculously turned into Thechi flowers by the will of Sree Parvathy and Lord Shiva was fully covered with flowers. The flowers and leaves offered by Arjuna to the Shivalinga were also seen on Kiratha itself. Arjuna then recognizes the Lord and prostrates before him. Having found Arjuna worthy of the deadly weapon, the Lord obliges His devotee very soon, and here He is goaded by Sreeparvathy who hastened the process with a motherly affection to Arjuna. Hastening is ‘twaritha’ in Malayalam and Goddess at Kadampuzha is worshipped as ‘twaritha’ or one who is quick in granting blessings and favours.

During the divine couple’s wandering in the forest, Sreeparvathy once felt thirsty and the Lord brought forth holy water from river Ganga through a welldirected arrow into the earth. This event is immortalized as ‘Kaatan-Ambu-eitha-ala’ where ‘kaatan’ is hunter, ‘ambu’ is arrow, ‘eitha’ is shot and ‘ala’ is hole. This became Katanambueithaala which was later colloquialised as Kadampuzha. Devotees thus worship the hole through which river Ganga sprouted and this is the idol, the divine sankalpa in Srikovil.

Jagathguru Shankaracharya during one of his frequent pilgrimages while traversing this forest area was attracted by an all pervading ‘aura’ emanating from the dense undergrowth. Finding it difficult to approach the spot due to the heat generated by the radiation, he meditated upon Lord Vishnu as Narasiminha and the Lord appeared. With the help of Sudarshanachakra of Lord Vishnu the great Saint moved closer only to find the radiance shrinking and finally vanishing into a hole on the earth’s surface.

Through deep meditation using the Divya-chakshussu’, the Aacharya discerned the nature of the phenomenon… nothing other than the divine presence of Sreeparvathy in the forest. The place was consecrated as a temple and in commemoration of ‘shower of flowers’ on Lord Shiva, Poomoodal gained prominence due to the inherent quality and power of flower petals to contain heat. The modalities of worship in this temple are as prescribed by Shankaracharya.

Goddess here is worshipped in three forms viz., Vidya Durga (Saraswathi) in the morning, Vanadurga in twaritha form (Durga) at noon and Aadi Durga (Mooladurga Lakshmi) in the evening. As Durga, she blesses the devotees with health, early marriage and domestic harmony, Saraswathi is invoked for education and career. Lakshmi is of course Goddess of wealth and prosperity.

The Vishnu is called “Navamukunda Perumal/Tevar” as it is believed that the idol was the ninth one to be installed in the temple by a group of nine Hindu yogis known as “Navayogis”. The first eight idols sank into the Earth as soon as they were placed there and the ninth sank to its knees before it was forcibly stopped. As the location of the sunken idols were not known, devotees used to make pradikshina on their knees. Even Alvancheri Tamparakkal and Tirunavaya Vaddhyans were not exempted from this practice.[9] Tirunavaya is also known as called “Navayogisthala”.

According to the legends, goddess Lakshmi and Gajendra, the king of the elephants, worshiped god Vishnu here with lotus flowers from a lake nearby; with the two devotees using flowers from the same source, its supply dwindled, and Gajendra appealed to Vishnu, who took Lakshmi by his side on the same throne and accepted worship offered by Gajendra.