Thiruvegappura - At the Apex of Advaitha..!!

Thiruvegapura is a village in Ottapalam Taluka in Palakkad District. It is on the Pattambi – Valancherry Road, 5 Kms from Valancherry. Thiruvegapura is the Gateway of Palakkad District as one reaches Malappuram District on crossing the Thutha puzha river bridge which is bordering the village. 

It is a typical Valluvanadan village with beautiful landscape and vegetation on the banks of Thutha Puzha also called as Kunthi puzha, a tributary of Bharata Puzha.

Thiruvegapura Mahakshetram is considered as the crown of the village and is  on the banks of Thutha Puzha. This temple is built in the 14th century and is unique in many ways. The main deities are Lord Siva, Lord Sankaranarayana and Lord Vishnu. As per the mythologies,  the Shiva Linga was founded by Garuda, the kite of Lord Vishnu after he fell for a severe illness and it was Lord Brahma who instructed Garuda to bring two Shiva lingas from Gaya and to consecrate one at Adityapuram and the other at Thiruvegappuram. Garuda consecrated Shiva Linga on the north side of the temple near the Vishnu idol  which was consecrated by sages in time immemorial. 

Since Garuda fled off quickly after worshipping the deity, the place came to be called as Thiru-Vegam-para(vegam in malayalam refers to quickness and Para means to fly off hastily). When Garuda quickly fled off his wing hit on the Shiva Linga and got slightly slanted and is still seen in that disposition.

Later Sri Sankaracharya consecrated the Sankara Narayana idol between the Vishnu and Shiva idols as he find the temple as the best example where both Shaiva and Vaishnava cultures are interwoven. 

This is one of the few temples, where we can find in the inner prakaram, three separate Sreekovils for the three deities with three separate flag masts and three separate balikallu at the entrances. Apart from these three deities, Lord Ganapathy is worshipped inside the nalambalam on the right side of Lord Shiva. Dakshinamurthy and Nandikeswara are also worshipped inside the Nalambalam. On the north-west corner Nagaraja is also worshipped and believed to be consecrated by Garuda himself to reduce the effect of his skin disease committed by eating serpents. 

Outside the Nalambalam, on the south-west side we can see the sanctum of Lord Thripuranthaka(Lord Shiva in the manifestation of one who destroyed Tripuras) and on the south side an Ayyappa shrine is also visible.  Inside the nalambalam big homakunda built with stone, which looks like a well from outside is there. In olden days on Vaikkathashtami day Vasordhara homam (continuous pouring of ghee without break in to the homakundam with chanting of manthras) was conducted here. In the outer prakaram, the Koothambalam is there in the south – east corner which is very large with exquisite typical Kerala architecture. 

Lord Shiva is worshipped in the morning as Dakshinamurthy, in the noon as Paramashiva and in the evening as Raja Rajeswara who is sitting as the Lord of Lords with Goddess Parvathi, Ganapathi, Subrahmaniya and Bhoothaganas. Hence the Sankhabhisheka in the evening is considered very much sacred by the devotees.

Padmasree Mani Madhava Chakyar used to perform Chakyar Koothu and Koodiyattam in the Koothambalam here for decades. The main offerings are Divasa pooja, Palpayasam and Sathasathayam. Koovalamala, Neyivilakku are also offered by devotees.

 
Vaikkathashtami is celebrated in Vrischika month in this temple. Shivarathri is one of the important festivals which falls in the month of Kumbha. Festival is for eight days and is celebrated from Uthrittathi of Kumbha month. Festival ends with Aarattu on the last day on the Kunthi river.