Kulathoopuzha Dharma Sastha temple
Compiled by
P.R.RAmachander
Kulathoopuzha is
situated in the Trivandrum- Chankottai road .
The temple is built on a river island. The deity is temple is called Manikandan. People believe the original
temple was built by the Pandya king who
was the foster father of Ayyappan. The peculiarity of this
temple is that seven stones enclosed in a metal jacket is worshipped as God here.
It seems one
Bragmin devotee was returning from Rameswaram Pilgrimage and happen to take rest near the river bank
here. It seems he ordered his serbvants to prepare food for him,. With
an intention of making a make shift stow
, those servants first spotted a big stone and collected two stones to make a Stow. But the fixed stone was taller than their
gathered stones. So they kept those two stones on two other stones. But to their surprise, the fixed stone grew further
tall. Then thinking of fixing it, They hit the fixed
stone with one of those gathered stone. It seems immediately blood started
flowing from the big stone. They summoned their master .That Brahmin sprinkled
the sacred waters collected from
Rameswaram on that stone and the
bleeding stopped. It seems then Lord Ayyappa appeared before the Brahmin in the
form of a child and requested him to
build a temple for him there. The king
of KOttarajara under whose jurisdiction , that spot fell arranged to build a temple there .The devotees worship the God as the boy Manikandan.
Feeding the
fishes in the river is the most important form of worship at
this temple. It seems a girl lost her golden ring in the river. The fishermen could recover the
ring from the fish in the river
surrounding the temple and so fish feeding became a popular form of
worship. There is a Nagraja consecrated
at this temple. Couples with children come and worship this Nagaraja and pray
for child birth.
The festival of
Vishnu in the medam month and the following four days are celebrated as a festival in this temple.
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