Pattazhy Durga Bhagawathi temple (Kottarakkara)

Pattazhy  Durga Bhagawathi temple (Kottarakkara)

Compiled by

P.R.Ramachander

Pattazhy is a small  village in O Pathanapuram Taluq   near KOttarakkara  , The very famous Pattazhy   Devi temple is located  there,There are  few stories about that  temple . It seems there was an Asura called Daruka who was troubling all the  three worlds . All the devas  requested  Lord  Shiva   to  help them. Then fire came out pf his eyes and from  that fire  A very black and ferocious Kali arose. And fought with Daruka for twenty days  and killed him. She had become so ferocious that  several tricks were  tried to pacify her. Sage Narada drew a picyutre  of Kali using several colour powders and this pacified her. This procedure is called Kalamezhuthu  .Lord Shiva asked her  to go and live in any sacred temple  of her  choice. Kali came to this world and decided to stay in Pattazhi.,

   There is one more  story.  The still angry Kali ran towards Pattazhy  . The  nine planets were scared and followed her in the form of children. Seeing  those children Kali got pity and  when she decided to live in Pattazhy, she   decided to give a place   from there. But these   are only spiritually present there  and there are no idols for them in that temple.

  There is a story about how the  temple was built there, .Once  the  head of the Kadiyam thuruthiyil   Keezhe Veedu  a noble family in those parts  , One day when he was walking  in their fields, he saw a very pretty lady apparition wearing   white cloths..When he went near the lady , that  form disappeared. That noble man did not get scared but devotion came to his mind. Suddenly   a well appeared before him..A stone slanb had closed the half part of the well, and   over that   the well was closed with a red silk cloth(Pattu in Malayalam) .When he saw in side the well  through the silk cloth, he found waves , IN consultations with great [people and astrologers   he decided to build a temple for  the goddess there.Since the well used to becalled Azhi and it was covered by silk(Pattu), that temple   was called Pattazhi, Seeing the very powerful presence of Goddess there , they   made a plank of jack wood tree and covered it with silver and  that was consecrated  in the   temple. Though these indicate  that  it is an ancient temple  , it appears to be only  one thousand years old. There are several copper plate records about this temple   which are kept inside the temple., The family of the person  who gave the land   and the Namboodiri family who formalized  the worship procedures have a right  in administration of the temple, apart from that  there are elected representatives of Two Karas(Nair villages) had  also a  role in the administration. After a long time a Man with divine  strength and power arose from these Karais.He was very powerful and took over the administration  of the temple on himself. Various stories of this great  Kambithan are  prevalent in Pattazhi and Kottarakkara.. It was this time  the great Marthanda Verma   was fighting with  kings of the northern sides to expand  his kingdom.  He had lot of problems in the fight with the Kayamkulam  king. At that time Kambithan advised Marthanda verma    to make offerings to  Pattazhi  Amma and start the war. Marthandaverma was  able    to win over Kayamkulam.After the death of Marthanda verma his son is supposed   gave a huge area  of land to the temple,Kambithan received  the land on behalf of the temple,. THirumala Naikan the king who was ruling   the Pandya country   wanted to present two   gold anklets to the goddess  and announced that  it would be handed over  only to the  representative of the gOddess. When Kambithan reached there he refused to give  the anklets., ,It seems he had a severe small pox attack and after  entrusting the ornament to Kambithan he got cured. One queen from Kottarakkara has presented the temple with golden hairs. This is invaluable  and is taken out and worn to the Goddess  only once in a year.The prayer room of Kamithan , has an idol of the Goddess  and is now  sub temple of the main temple

     The Pattazhy   Durga Bhagwathy faces the north..There is a temple tank which is considered  very  sacred by the  devotees.. there are also many small temples for different gods  in the temple compound..tHe temple compound also has Samadhis of two Kambithans who  played a major role in the history of the temple..When you  see in the sanctum , you can only see, two hairs  of the BHagwathy on a wooden plank. tHis wooden plank is kept over a well. But for this there  is no idol there..There is a practice of going nine times  round  the sanctum with the  belief that  the nine planets would get  pleased by that.

  The first of every month, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays are important days   for the temple.oN the Ayilyam day of the Month of Kanni there is a special worship to The Naga Raja,On Maha Navami day the Goddess is made to wear a golden apparel  and is taken out of the temple.The Kalamezhuthu,  songs and festival(Called Chirappu in these parts) start from the first of Vruschigam and extends up to  the eleventh day   of Dhanu., The powder from the Kalam is distributed as Prasada   during these days and it is believed that  it has medicinal properties,On the  last Sunday of the Makara  month , the ladies assemble  in the temple and prepare Pongala. The five day festival of the temple starts on the Thiruvadira day of Kumbha masam(which is the birthday of the Goddess, There is also a festival of Malakkuda when the eighteen mountains   around the temple are worshipped on the fourth day  of the festival,A hill called Puli Kunnu is worshipped as a representative of all the 18 hills. Lot of tribal people  participate  in this festival.,On the fifth day of the festival there is a war between the Goddess  and Darukan,The Shivarathri day and the the THiruvadira of Meena month which happens   to be the  birth star of Kambithan are   also  celebrated. The festival is known for Kambam (fire works), Aalpindi Vilakku Ezhunnallathu (Procession of small structure made out of plantain kernel and germinating leaves of coconut tree with numerous lamps on it), Ponnin Thirumudi (Devi's idol carved out of pure gold and rare precious stones) Ezhunnallathu

  The temple can be contacted at

Pattazhy Devi Kshethram,

Pattazhy P.O,
Pattazhy, Kollam
kerala
Pincode:691522
Phone:0475 2398421, 0475 2399421
Email: info@pattazhydevitemple.org