Triprayar Rama Temple

Truprayar Rama Temple
By
P.R.Ramachander
Like the neighboring states in Kerala also the number of temples dedicated to Rama are
very few. One of them is the famous Truprayar temple. This temple is about 20 km from
the town of Trichur. It is between Kodungallor and Guruvayur. ,. The river flowing
through this village is called Truprayar Puzha.
It seems once fishermen trying to catch fish in the sea , got 4 statutes. They were not
able to identify them and took it to the house of Vaykkal Kaimal. Recognizing the
divinity in the statues, as is usual, daiva prasnam was done. They came to know that the
statues are that of Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana and Shatrugna. The god ordered them to
consecrate Rama in Truprayar and other Gods in near by places. This order of God was
followed. Rama was consecrated in Truprayar, Bharatha in Irinjalakuda, Lakshmana in
Moozhikulam and Shatrugna in Payamel.
They heard a divine voice tell them that Rama idol has to be consecrated in a place
shown by a divine peacock bird. In spite of waiting for long, the bird did not come. So
they consecrated the idol in a place chosen by them . Later the divine bird did come and
sat in another place. The people constructed a big Balikkal in that place. But the Balikkal
started moving on its own. A great Mahatma called Narayanathu Branthan hit a nail and
fixed the Balikkal in a place. Even today we can see the hole of the nail in the Balikkal.
There is a belief that going round the temple should include that Balikkal also .
The God Rama in this temple has four hands .He holds the wheel, conch, Kodanda
bow and Akshamala in his hands. He is surrounded by Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess
Bhoodevi on both sides. It is believed that it was Vilwamangalam Swamiyar who
consecrated Goddess Lakshmi and Bhoodevi in this temple. When he was on a visit to
this temple , he saw the Bhoodevi and Sridevi enter the temple for doing Pooja through
the western gate , He consecrated them there it self and ordered the western gate should
be closed for ever, to have their divine presence always and for ever.. There is no temple
of Hanuman in this place but it is believed that Hanuman is always present here. Daily
beaten rice is offered to him in the Mukha mandapam. In the south of the sanctum
sanctorum , there is a temple for Dakshinamurthy. , Ganesa and Ayyappa. Gingelly lamp
is offered as worship to this Ayyappa on Saturdays. Strangely there is a temple for
Chathan(devil) Sami near this temple. People believe that Chathan Sami is the son of
Lord Rama.
There is a reference to this temple in one of the ancient works of Malayalam called
Kokasandesham. Taking this in to account , it is clear that this temple was very famous
even in the fourteenth century.
The three main festivals of this temple are the Ekadasi of Krishna Paksha in the month
of Vruschiga(November-December) called Truprayar Ekadasi, , Mageeram of the month
of Meenam (March-April) and Arattupuzhapuram.
On the Ekadasi day the God travels our of the temple with 21 elephants and goes to
see his son at Chathan Sami Temple. When this procession nears the Avanangadu Shiva
temple, it moves silently till it passes the temple. It seems once Lord Rama promised
Lord Shiva of Avanangadu that he would give paddy which has been grown within a day
and a coconut. Since he was not able to fulfill this promise. Lord Rama prefers Lord
Shiva not to know about his passing by this temple. Arattupuzha pooram is held in
Arattupuzha with 101 elephants coming from 101 temples. The leader of the group is the
Lord of Truprayar.
There is a belief that if we are able to start from this Rama Temple and see the other
three temples of his brothers in nearby places before noon, we would get our wishes
fulfilled. This is called Nalambalam Kanal. There are special buses starting from
Truprayar , in the early morning for this purpose.