Vellanad Sree Bhagavathy Temple is one of the famous and ancient temples in Kerala and is situated in a village called Vellanad in Trivandrum District.
Vellanattamma is famously known as the mother who answers the call of her devotees. Vellanattamma is the rebirth of the incarnation of Aadhiparashakthi.The incarnation of devi is to kill demon Dharika, who ruled the three worlds under his control. Goddess Bhadrakali is the principal diety of Vellanad Sree Bhagavathy temple. The temple is of 800 years old.
According to legends, there are two places named Porittakavu near Varkala and Thalayattumoozhy near Venjaramoodu, in which the fight was happened between the Goddess Kali and Dharika, and after killing him, devi reached this place, which is rich in prosperity and she took rest here.
In the begining, Bhadrakali pooja was conducted in the Vellanad devi temple. When the rites for conducting the pooja was hand overed to the Brahmins, the Bhadrakali pooja was transformed into Bhagavathi pooja. The character of the Goddess hence changed because of the change in type of rituals, but the some rituals are still continuing on the festival days and are Thookam, Paranettu, Nilathil poru, Kuthiyottam, Thottam pattu etc.
Years ago the pooja was held only on fridays. Later, on tuesdays also pooja was conducted. Now the pooja is held on all days. On all special occasions such as chingam first of malayalam month, Thiruvonam, Navarathri festival, Mandala chirappu, Thrikkarthika etc., the temple will be celebrating grandly.
One of the important legend is that there is a relation between the Vellanad panchayath and Thirumala Naikkar of Madurai. There is a horse path from Madurai, to the Southern tip of Kerala via Sherlacode and Kottoor hills. During that period Kottoor was ruled by a queen named Kalimuppathana. Thirumala Naikkar decided to attack the capital. A soldier is appointed for the spy work by Thirumala Naikkar. But by seeing the queen, the soldier forgot his duties and stayed there. Finally hirumala Naikkar captured Kottoor and extended it to Thiruvananthapuram. Some legends show that the division of Naikkar's family members were stayed in Velloorkonam near Vellanad. Todays Thirunelloorshala Shiva temple was costructed by the Naikkar's family. If the predictions are correct, then Naikar had given the name Vellanadu for the place in memory of his place 'Vellanadu' in Madurai. Another legend says that the name Vellanad came because of Vellalar, who are living in this place.
Installation day of the principal deity is observed (Pradhishta dhinam) on 'Uthrittathi' star of Makaram. This is the occasion in which the entire devotees will be focused on the temple. The streets will be made colorful on festival days with decorative things like tender-coconut and plantain leaf-stalks. Vellanattu Ponkala is an exclusive festival of women. On the day of ponkala, lakhs of women devotees assemble from different places of Trivandrum and make sweet offerings with rice, jaggery and coconut in earthern pots as an offering to Devi. After Ponkala, the chief priest of the temple goes around and blesses the devotees by sprinkling holy water and flower petals on them.
