Kottiyoor - At the Banares of the south

Kottiyoor Shiva Temples, together considered as the ‘Varanasi of the south’, are two famous Shiva temples situated on the opposite banks of River Bavali (namely the Akkare Kottiyoor temple and the Ikkara Kottiyoor temple), fondled by the tender hands of sylvan Cannanore. Kottiyoor Mahadeva Temple is denoted as an important centre of pilgrimage in Northern Kerala and is situated 65 Kms North-East of Thalessery. Kottiyoor Shiva is usually referred to as Kottiyoor Perumal.

It is believed that Prajapathy Daksha, father of the unfortunate Sati Devi (Shiva’s first consort; Parvathi is considered as the rebirth of Sati), performed a yaga, renowned as ‘Daksha Yaga’, at Kottiyoor. Sati had married Siva against the wishes of her father and thereby incurred her father’s wrath. The wicked Daksha performed a great yanja, with the sole intention of insulting Shiva, to which he sent invitation to all the Gods and Goddesses demanding their participation except to his daughter and son-in-law. Sati, who was exasperated by this treatment of her father, set off to meet him to ask the reason for it. Daksha insulted Sati in the name of her husband before the guests who were present for the ceremony. Being an ideal consort, Sati could not bear this. Being enraged with anger, she immediately jumped into the fire and committed suicide.

On hearing about the sad demise of his consort, Lord Siva became ferocious and took the spot by storm. Upon the orders of Lord Shiva, his creations - Veerabhadra and Bhadrakali unleashed terror and destroyed the entire place. On a vengeance spree, Veerabhadra even beheaded Daksha. On seeing the burnt reminiscent of Sati, Shiva was so infuriated that he lifted the corpse on his shoulder and started the dance of destruction – The Mystic ‘Thandavam’.

The dance continued for quite a time and the earth was on the brink of being annihilated. Then, on the appeal of all the other gods and goddesses, Lord Vishnu with the help of his Sudarsana chakra, started cutting Sati’s body. It is said that the parts of Sati’s body had fallen at different parts of the country, which are all considered as Shakti Peethas which are of 108 in number.

‘Ammarathara’ at Kottiyoor is considered as the place where Sati gave in to flames. Here one can see the Palm-leafed umbrella, a hanging oil lamp (Thookuvilakku) and a movable idol (Thidambu) of Devi.

The formation of the temple is related with an episode that portrays the duel between Parasurama and Kali(the mentor of Kaliyuga). Parasurama, on his way through the Kottiyoor pastorals, was attacked by Kali. Exacerbated by this, Parasurama seized Kali and decided to chop off his head. In a flash, the divine trinities appeared in front of Parasurama and told him to liberate Kali. Parasurama released Kali on a condition that he should not attack the Keralites again. Trinities told Parasurama that his desire will be fulfilled if only a 27 day long Vaisakhotsavam is conducted at Kudiyoor(the former name of Kottiyoor).

After the start of Vaisakhotsavam, peace and prosperity of Kerala has been on the rise. But there were saints with other plans, like Viswamitra, who wanted to demolish this custom and had been pulling strings for quite a long to make things favourable. Viswamitra entrusted Sage Durvasavu to abolish Vaisakhotsavam. On his way to Kottiyoor, Durvasavu saw a woman named Mali, who belongs to another community. Durvasavu tumbled head over heels in love with Mali and proposed her. In return for accepting the proposal, Mali wanted to make her son the next ruler of Kerala. Having been struck by Cupid's arrow, Durvasavu agreed without thinking much about the consequences. Their son became the ruler of Kerala and Vaisakhotsavam was trashed with in no time.

Many a century flew by and one day a Kurichya hunter happened to come by that way. Having seen a cylindrical stone, he started sharpening his arrow on it. Blood soon spurted from the stone. Padinjeetta Namboothiri who arrived there at that time, understood that the stone is a Swayambhoo Linga and had done abhisheka on it with water taken from the Bavali river. Brahmins of the place soon decided to reinstate the festival ceremonies. Later, the customs were arranged properly by none other than the great Sri Sankaracharya.

Every year during the months of May-June (Madhavam or Vaisakham), it is festival season here, with thousands of devotees throng to see and participate in the 27 day long festival. This festival is akin to the yaga performed by Daksha. A sword, which is believed to have decapitated the mythical character Daksha is brought to the Ikkare Kottiyoor temple from the Muthirerikavu temple (this weapon is an object of daily worship at Muthirerikavu), which marks the beginning of the annual festival. There is no worship at Ikkare Kottiyoor temple on the festival season. On the festival month, Ikkare Kottiyoor temple is closed and the worship is taken place only at Akkare Kottiyoor temple, which remains closed for the other eleven months.

The idol at Manithara in Akkare Kottiyoor temple is ‘swayambhoo’(surfaced by its own) and here the priest is considered as Lord Vishnu himself. According to the myths, Vishnu did Aalingana(embrace) pooja as well as ‘abhishekam’ with tender coconut juice in order to appease Shiva and to calm him down. The devotees recite 'Hare Govinda' aloud when climbing the hill.

The annual festival commences with Neyyattam(pouring of ghee) on the Chothi(Swathi) day of Edavam(May-June) and ends with Thrikalashattam, after 28 days. Neyyattam and Elaneerattam(pouring of tender coconut juice) are special ceremonies connected with the festival.

Devotees should have attained the purity for visiting the Kottiyoor temple by following numerous rigid propitiable austerities and should lead an ascetic life from the day of Vishu. Innumerable temple rites are performed at Kottiyoor during the festival time. Before trekking on the holy hills of Kottiyoor, devotees should take a bath in the Bavali River. The exotic and esoteric religious rituals here make the festival stand apart from the other temple festivals across Kerala.

Women are permitted to worship at Kottiyoor only on particular days during the period of festival. The ‘Pradhama Sthaneeyar’ of Kottiyoor is from the Thekkedath Family of Kankol. It is said that one of the most ardent devotees of Guruvayoorappan, Poonthanam, who wrote Njanappana, has had the habit of reading ‘Bhagavatham’ at Kottiyoor.

It is better to conclude this narrative with a chronicle carried over through generations that clearly reiterates the infallible divinity of Kottiyoor Perumal. Kannoth Kunhikannan of Chala once went to the forest to measure and assess the land of Kottiyoor Perumal. There he saw Karimpalars (a tribal group) cutting cane. Kunhikannan demanded some cane but tribals refused to hand over their canes. Kunhikannan forcefully took cane and had beaten those tribal men. They went to the temple and pleaded to the God. Two snakes wriggled away from there and entered the field of Kunhikannan in the form of two leeches. His younger sister was the ‘Kettilamma’ (the royal woman) of Chirakkal Thampuran and was pregnant. On her way home, she got down from the palanquin in the field and the leeches bit her to death. There were signs that her soul didn’t get peace albeit the rites for the dead was done and the astrological revelations made it clear that it was due to the anger of Kottiyoor Perumal and Kunhikannan had to present a gold cane as an atonement to appease the deity.