Athingal Bhairavi temple
Compiled by
P.R.Ramachander
Athingal is a small town about 34 km away from Trivandrum. This was earlier a small independent principality . A lady called Avani amma thamburatti who was the last member of the royal family there. She adopted the king of
Tranvancore at the time and requested
him to take over the rule of this kingdom
and also adopt a girl child who
would look after the kingdom under his direction. After her death, the themn
king adopted two girls belonging to the Chirakkal Royal family of Northern
Malabar and made them in charge of the
principality. He also made them independent and gave lot of land to them .
These princesses brought with them an idol of Goddess from their native place .
There is a story about this Goddess. It seems in the THaliparambu Rajarajeswara
temple there was a fierce goddess. One day the Velichapadu (oracle)
said that he would throw a
burning fire wood. The temple of the
Goddess was to be built in that place where the fire wood falls. . The fire
wood fell in a forest little away from there
and a part of forest was burnt. The temple of Goddess was built there. . This new temple was called THiru virago
Kattiya Kavu or Madayi Bhagwathi temple .
The princesses along with
them the
Uthsava idol of this temple and
c also large number of people including priests to worship this goddess .
Initially the idol was
worshipped in the palace itself
and so it was called as “Palliyara
Bhagawathi.” And later it was consecrated in a new temple built near the
Palace on the top of a small hill. This new temple was called as “Thiru virago
kattiya Kavu” as well as :Puthan Kavu.”.You have to climb several steps to
reach the temple..It was initially maintained by the king of Travancore and
later on handed over to the Travancore Devaswam board. On the entrance to the
sanctum sanctorum there are two lady gurards called Sumukhi and Sundari. To the south of the sanctum , Vera Bhadra , Ganesa and the Saptha
mathas have been consecrated. People believe that the Goddess is in the sanctum
is powerful and is in an angry mood.. The statue has been made using the alloy of five metals(Pancha loha) .
There are also small temples for KIratha, Sastha and Ganesa in this temple. There is also a temple for
Naga Yakshi and a Shiva Linga with reddish tinge., On the northern side there
is a temple for Brahma Raksas.
The worship
is done by the priests who have been brought from Malabar. The annual festival
is in the month of Vruschigam..There are festivals in thew month of Makara as
well as anine day festival in the month of Meenam . Ariyittu Vazcha
which is very peculiar ritual which was brought from the original Malabar is
observed on the 9th day
Makaram month. It is normally attended
by the royal family members of the Travancore family. If the king is not able
to attend for some reason, he is supposed to give the temple an elephant as
fine. The Sword of the temple is worshipped using red rice before the king .Later
this rice is taken inside the temple and
used to anoint the Bhagawathy idol, by taking the rice with a conch. The
goddess is referred to as Bhairavi and keepos on blessing the people all around
Athingal.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Delete