Koduvayur - Part 1 - Shiva Temple

Overview

KERALAPURAM AGRAHARAM (BOOLOKA KAILASAM )

It is a village situated about 10 km away from Palakkad town. There are four streets that were housing exclusively Brahmins in this village. The streets are New Street, Gokula Street, Corner street (Mukku theruvu) and Double (Retta theruvu) Street. There are three temples managed by Iyers in this village viz. Sree Krishna Temple, Sree Viswanatha Swamy Temple and Sree Ganapathy temple. There is also a temple of Keralathappan, whose idol is supposed to have been damaged by Tipu sultan during his raid. The folk tales say that the prathishta Lingam of Viswanatha and that of Visalakshi were brought to the village from Kasi. The Pooja in this temple is by Kurukkal. The car festival is celebrated during the festival of Thiruvadira and the idols from the three temples would be placed in separate cars and the chariots would be drawn through various streets of the Gramam. Following the car festival there will be a Theppam. This is a flower-decked boat in which the idol is taken round the tank. Though this is common in Tamil Nadu it is rare in Kerala.

Location

Location: The Koduvayur agraharam is located It is located 15 kilometers from the Palakkad railway station

Address: MMM3+W28, Keralapuram St Rd, Koduvayur, Kerala 678501

Temple Timings: 

5.30AM TO 9.45AM

5.00PM TO 8.00PM


History

It is said that the four lingams had qualities which were metaphors for the 4 'Varnas'. Thus the "general belief is that he installed one (the Brähmana lingam) at Kalpätti, the second one (the Kshatriya lingam) at Kotuvayoor and the third one (the 'Fourth Varna' lingam) at Kollankot. It is not known where the Raja installed the fourth (the Vaisya-lingam). Perhaps the temple that had Vaisya-lingam is now known by some other name or that might have been destroyed during the invasion of Mysorean forces."


Deities

Videos

Photo Gallery

Utsavams

Vahanas

KAMADENU, BOOTHAM, KUTHIRA, KAILASAM, RISHABA, ELEPHANT

Adimakkavu

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Other Agraharam Information

Contact Information

President – VIGNESH K.G – 8892297617

Secretary – BALASUBRAMANIAN-9400478442

TREASURER – VIGNESH PARAMESHWARAN– 8921462094

KANNAN – 9400478442

Well Known Elders from the Agraharam

Food and Catering

V.R.D DORAI SAMY HOTEL

K.S.P IYER SWEETS

Hall for functions and Lodging

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Bank Accounts for sending Kanikkai, donation or vazhipadu

FEDERAL BANK ,Koduvayur Branch

In favour of Koduvayur Brahmana samooham

18850100025285

IFSC CODE: FDRL0001885


Author's Notes

Koduvayur - Part 1 - 100 Agraharams Project

With the grace of all the Agraharam Gods, the forefathers of each village, and the elders, the 100Agraharam project has completed 24 agraharams as of July 31 2024.

And for today I take great pleasure to present the Koduvayur agraharam to you. As I have explained in the introduction, the volume of media we have from the agraharam is massive. Since the editing is done by me, it is taking a while to sift through the data and publishing it.

This is part 1 and Sri Venkitachalam has given us a wealth of information not just on the festivals and happenings but also on the history and the background of the village.

There are lots of recorded data on the Temple in the Census of India, Special studies - Kerala and let me give you a extract from the pages:

"Datable to fourteenth century, the early history of the temple is still obscure. There are different legends on the origin of the temple. One view is that at this place an old temple, by name Keralattappan temple, existed. It was owned by Pulapatta mana and the temple had paddy fields, which fetched 12,000 paras of paddy per annum.

Subsequently, the episode of Palakkattusseri Raja marrying an Aadivasi lady and the resultant objections from the orthodox Nambootiris became part of the history. The Nambootiris had to leave this place and the Raja brought 64 Tamil Brähmin families from Chidambaram and Tiruvanchiyam in Tamil Nadu. It is also believed that one Lakshmi Ammal, a wealthy Brähmin lady brought four sila-linga idols from Kasi and gave them to Palakkät Raja for installation at appropriate places. She also donated her wealth for the maintenance of these temples."

It is said that the four lingams had qualities which were metaphors for the 4 'Varnas'. Thus the "general belief is that he installed one (the Brähmana lingam) at Kalpätti, the second one (the Kshatriya lingam) at Kotuvayoor and the third one (the 'Fourth Varna' lingam) at Kollankot. It is not known where the Raja installed the fourth (the Vaisya-lingam). Perhaps the temple that had Vaisya-lingam is now known by some other name or that might have been destroyed during the invasion of Mysorean forces."

"Details about the management of the temple in earlier days are not known except that in the early period of the twentieth century there were two ooranma families living in Otta-teruvu and Puttan-teruvu. On 28th June 1937 the temple was taken over by the H.R.&C.E. Board. At that time the ooralars were Sree K.P. Paramēswaran Sastrikal (of Puttan teruvu) and Sree Venkateswara Pattar of Otta-teruvu."

My main references are the above document, Malabar Manual by William Logan and a few other books.

But I am also inclined to believe the locals who have a wealth of information which has been handed down to them through their elders over centuries.

Radhe Krishna

Sriram(Hari), 100-Agraharams Project

Rama Bhagavathar Charitable Trust

August 2, 2024