Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Kaduthuruthy Mahadeva Kshetram

Kaduthuruthy-Thaliyil Mahadeva Kshetram ( temple ) is 15 Kms. from Ettumanur or Vaikom  but lesser known to pilgrims than the other two temples. As I have mentioned earlier, visiting these triad of temples  before Uccha (Noon) pooja is considered to be auspicious. This temple is situated on a small hillock and compared to the  other  temples, it is  smaller in size.  The Sivalingam here is only  3" in size, faces East  and is also believed to have  been installed by Khara, the demon who installed the other two Lingams in Ettumanur, and Vaikom. There are also shrines dedicated to  Ettumanurappan and Vaikathappan here, in the outer prakaram. It is also  said that visiting this temple is equivalent to  visiting  the other two temples . The  beautiful greenery around,  the pristine surroundings  adds a certain charm to this  temple.

The temple architecture is simple and I could find a lot of wooden carvings on the Vimanam above the sanctum.  A fire engulfed this temple 300 years ago and the chief priest sacrificed his life  in protecting the deity by  embracing the  Lingam . A statue of this chief priest is installed at the Northen side of the temple to commemorate the event.

How to reach: Nearest towns are Kottayam and  Kochi (Ernakulam) on the main rail route between Chennai and Trivandrum . Kochi  is also having an international airport and harbour.Kaduthuruthy is on the State highway connecting Kochi and Trivandrum through Kottayam and Kollam.
Accomodation is very easily available as luxury , economy and budget hotels are quite a few here.

38 comments:

SathyaSridhar said...

Chitra,,nice info about this temple dear beautiful temple pics..

chitra said...

Sathya Sridhar

Welcome!! Thanks for the comment.

Mridula said...

The shot with the temple and the blue sky looks fabulous.

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Can I just ask if that is some sort of fountain in picture 8?

SG said...

Thanks for the information. Beautiful narration. Beautiful pictures.

Whenever I read your post, the face of Desa.Mangayarkarasi comes in front of me and I can hear her voice in the background while I read your post. By chance, are you Desa.Mangayarkarasi?. If not, please take this as a complement.

Sushma Mallya said...

Nice write up and beautiful temple...

Rajlakshmi said...

beautiful pics... nice pictures :)

chitra said...

Mridula
I understand your fascination for such pictures. In fact I am inspired by you . Now a days I am taking lot of pictures with sky as back ground and such things always remind me of your pretty shots. great is it not?

chitra said...

Petty Witter,
That is what we called as deepa sthambham. It is nothing but a pedestal for oil lamps. This particular one is made of granite and some times they are made of metals.They have concentric layers and each layer has small hollows to light lamps.Devotees pour oil and with cotton wick they light the lamps for worshipping.
These deepa ( lamp) sthambha ( pedestal)are very typical of Kerala temple architecture.

chitra said...

SG
This is the best thing I have heard since my blogging and I will cherish this for ever.

Desa. Mangayakarasi is blessed by the Great Kripananda variar and I don't think I will be able to match her at all as I am yet to attain that kind of ghayana.

Let Lord help me continue with the good work I have undertaken.
Bouquet of thanks.

chitra said...

Sushma,
Thanks for the comment.

chitra said...

Rajalakshmi,
Thanks for the comment. I am happy to see you here.

AswathiBabu said...

Chitra
I heard from elders that khara had installed the lingam with his mouth {kadichu iruthi that's why kaduthuruthi}. He took the three lingams two with his hands and one with mouth. Considering the distance of the temples this may be correct, kaduthuruthy comes half way from the two temples.
Wishing you all success

Insignia said...

the pictures are beautiful, seems the place is tranquil and at peace. It reflects in these pictures. Thanks for sharing once again beautiful pictures and the information.

chitra said...

Aswathy,
Yes that is what I also gathered. The one in his mouth was installed in Kaduthuruthy.

Another version , is that is was a Kadal thuruthu. During a Tsunami the sea receded and the place retained its name as kadathuruthy.Thanks for dropping in and the valuable coment.

chitra said...

Insignia,
I thank you for the encouraging comment.

Sorcerer said...

yes as usual another fantastic pic set and information..
thanks

Anuradha Shankar said...

nice one, chitra! when we went to Ettamanur and vaikom, we were ignorant about this temple and missed it.. my inlaws read about it later and visited this one too! so i had heard about it....but the story we heard was about Ravana, not khara.. thanks for the correction...

chitra said...

Sorci,
Thanks for the comment.

chitra said...

Anu,
The legend says it is Khara. We too would have missed this temple but thanks to the net I could gather information before setting on this pilgrimage. Happy that your in laws could visit it.You can also make it on your next visit.

SathyaSridhar said...

Chitra,,dear did u posted new one about Francis church,,i cldnt get the pagelink dear..

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Many thanks for that explanation.

chitra said...

Sathya
That was a test page I was experimenting i.e directly posting photos from flickr.I have already posted St.Francis church earlier in the month of Feb.

HaRy!! said...

madam... fotos kalakitinga.... reminds me of the tour which our family went!yes yu hav posted Francis church is'nt it? :)

chitra said...

Hary,

Thanks. and I was experimenting with flickr. MY post on St.Francis church appeared in Feb/10 itself.

Archana said...

Hi Chitra,
Thanks for this post. It's overwhelming to know about the priest's devotion who sacrificed his life. Hi statue also shows how people venerate such figures in Indian tradition. Worshipping a brave person who died fighting is an integral part of the ancient tradition of India.

Urmi said...

Very nice and useful information with beautiful pictures. I have not visited this place and shall try to visit.

chitra said...

Archana,
thanks for your comment.

chitra said...

Babli
Thanks for your comment.

itsyvitsy said...

I am sorry I am late coming here. I have been keeping a lot busy these days (at work) and weekends I generally don't get time to read blogs. :-( But, whenever I get time I read all those that I have missed. :-D

Again, another temple with a different history. But, who cares about history. If we find a temple, we simply bow before the deity and pray. No inhibitions, no apprehensions. Sometimes we do not even know who the deity is, but still we bow our head. I am not being demeaning here, but I am appreciating the beauty of it all. It is so beautiful!

About the pictures I can only tell that you know how to click them! :-) Nice pics.

chitra said...

Vittal,

Happy to see your comment. The beauty of what you said is,quite often God and Goddesses take care of such people more than those who are ardent devotees:)

SathyaSridhar said...

Hi dear,,,today morning i got lord venkateshwara's posting update n now i got namakkal temples dear but i cldnt get the page link..

chitra said...

Sathya, Archana, Sushma
I am very sorry about that. They are my older posts and was loading photos and editing them but by mistake I pressed publish button again....
I am sorry for the inconvenience it has caused . Today you would see the new post .

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Thanks for writting about our local temple.nice to see all the pics, bring the memmories back.
Joseph

Krishnamoorthy said...

Hello, Blessing from a 76 year young senior. Your photoes are very nice, but I wished they had titles. I could not know if all of them are of the same Mahadev Temple or upa-devathas.
Krishnamoorthy, Mumbai

chitra said...

Thank you so much Mr. Krishnamoorthy. I will try to give titles to the photos in future.
The above pictures are of the same temple and the smaller shrines are of upa-devatas of same temple.

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