Cherpulassery Ayyappan Kavu
Compiled by
P.R.Ramachander
Cherpulassery ins an
important town of Valluvanadu, and is between Pattambi and Perinthalmanna. It
has one very famous Ayyappan temple. Here
Swamy Ayyappan is with his wife Prabha
devi and son Sathyaka. This temple is
called as Sabarimala of Malabar as well
as Sabarimala of women. This is one of the 108 Ayyappa temples consecrated
by Lord Parsaurama,It seems Dharma Sastha ascended the throne of this temple
after gaining mastery in Vedas
ad so many people bring their
children for Vidhatambham at
this temple
There is an interesting story about its origin, It seems
ten Nambhudiri families were living near this temple.One of them started praying the Dharma Sastha at Thiruvullakavu
sastha temple at Peruvanam for the birth
of a child to them .On the day he
completed his penance when he had decided to return back, he saw a black stone near him, which was not there before. As he was a scholar he
could find out that it was Dharma Sastha
himself. So with the rice and Jaggery that he had , he prepared Ada and offered it to the idol .He
indeed got a son who became a
mendicant and passed away.Since there
was no one in his family , his
manager converted their residence in to
the present temple ,The Gaeden of Jasmine maintained by the Nambudiri became the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. Nava Grahas , Ganapathy, Brahma Rakshas and Nagaraja are the upra devathas of this temple.
This is one of the
few temples of Lord ayyappa where marriages can be solemnized in front of
Ayyappa A large number of pregnant women also visit this temple during the 7th month
of their pregnancy. It is customary for expectant mothers to visit temples and
seek the blessings of the deity. They typically start with the temples in their
neighborhood and end this season of temple visits at the Cherpulassery Ayyappan
Kavu. Ada is the favourite offering to Lord
Sastha here There is a famous ten day pooram festival in this temple
In this temp[e Theeyattu
which consists of fire and
singing of stories is offered to the God as a special offering .This is performed THiyyadi Nambiars
“The all-male art centres around the mythological story of
the birth of Lord Ayyappa from the relationship of Lord Vishnu in
his ephemeral impersonation as Mohini and Lord Shiva .
The most common version of Thiyyattu involves four phases of
presentation: a) Kalamezhuthu (sketching the kalam—picture—of Ayyappa using
natural pigments), b) Kottum Pattum (rendition of invocatory songs of Ayyappa
and a stylised narration of the story of his birth), c) Koothu gesture -laden
dance enacting the build-up story to the delivery of the lord) and d)
Velichchappaadu (the slow-paced to frenzied dance of the oracle who eventually
erases the kalam—the image of the lord sketched on the sanctified floor). It
takes roughly a couple of hours for the kalam (image) of the lord to be
completed, after which the rest of the three rituals would consume nearly three
hours altogether.
The picture of Ayyappa is sketched and embellished in five
natural colours—white (rice powder), yellow (turmeric powder), green (ground
semi-dry leaves of the 'vaaka' or manchadi' tree, red (a mix of turmeric powder
and slaked lime) and black (powdered charred rice husk). The lord invariably
holds his weapons like the sword and the bow-and-arrow, and, in more elaborate
versions is sketched mounted on the tiger or the horse.
The songs—accompanied by the beats of 'para', a smaller
version of the chenda , and the cymbals called ilathalam —praising
the lord bear a mix of quaint old Malayalam and Tamil with a
streak of endemic tunes, some of which can be traced to classical ragas of
the Sopanam style of Kerala music besides that belonging to the Carnatic
idiom. The stylised rendition of the birth of Ayyappa, called Thottam, also
sticks to the same mix of languages, but is devoid of music.
The Koothu is enacted with no make-up but a defined set of
costumes. Facial emotions are nil, dance movements are minimal and hand
gestures would look the less refined versions of Koodiyattam and Kathakali
. The Koothu is usually performed to the accompaniment of chenda, ilathalam and
'para'.
The Velichchappadu (oracle), wielding a small sword, is
bare-chested but for the garland and, canonically, with a flowy hair; the face
either bearded or clean-shaven. Around the waist, he is draped in cloth pieces
of white and red colours. The oracle begins with slow steps while
circumambulating around the 'kalam', but the tempo gains with the circles he
make—around 9 or 11 of them, overall. Then he leaps onto the image in a frenzy,
but is calm when he later erases the image with both legs. The face of the lord
alone is erased with the (right) hand. Out from the 'kalam', the oracle utters
'revelatory' sentences in (presumed) trance -- 'kalpana' as they are called.
The devotees are distributed with the prasadam which is the mixed powder
used in the 'kalam'.
The art is sometimes staged in bigger forms that last from
dawn to late night when it is called Udayasthamaya Thiyyattu. In such cases,
the Koothu would deal with twelve stories ahead of the birth of Ayyappa. Such
performances usually feature the challenging 'Pantheeraayiram', which is when
the oracle would take a (three- to four-hour-long) break from the
circumambulations to break (dehusked and sufficiently polished) coconuts
totalling 12,000 to the rhythmic beats of chenda-and-ilathalam concert that
would gain speed towards the climax.
The Thiyyadi Nambiar families, despite their existence in
central Kerala, enjoy the popularity of their art more in the upstate Malabar belt.
“ (Quoted from Wikipedia)
The temple opens
daily at 5 Am and is open up to 11.30
Am and again opens in 5pm and is kept open till 8 pm
The nearest Bus stand is Ottha palam from where the temple is 17 km away .Buses
are also available from Pattambi and
Perinthalmanna. and the temple address
is
Sree Cherpulassery Ayyappankavu
Cherpulassery (po) Palakkad
Pin:679503 Ph: 0466 2282304
Pin:679503 Ph: 0466 2282304
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