The Agraharams of Palakkad

Koduvayur - Part 3 - Ganapathy 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

Sri Visalakshi Samedha Viswanatha Swamy and Sri Madurai Meenakshi
Sri Krishna - Gokula Street
Sri Ganapathy

Videos

Photo Gallery

Utsavams

AADI POORAM
ANNABHISHEKAM – THULA MASAM
NAVARATHRI
KARTHIKAI
PRADOSHAM
ARDRA DARSHANAM
RATHOLSAVAM – ON THIRUVATHIRAI DHANU
PRATHISTADINAM – MEDA MASAM -PUNARTHAM NAKSHTRAM
LORD GANAPATHY TEMPLE
CHATHURTHY
THAI POOSAM
SRI RAMA NAVAMI
ASHTAMI ROHINI
URIYADI ON PURATASSI MASAM EKADASI
PRATHISTA DINAM-MEDA MASAM ,MAKEERAM NAKSHTRAM
THIRUVONAM EVERY MONTH

Vahanas

KAMADENU, BOOTHAM, KUTHIRA, KAILASAM, RISHABA, ELEPHANT

Adimakkavu

-na-

Other Agraharam Information

Total homes in the Agraharam: 326
Number and % of Brahmin homes: 198 or 60%
Number and % of homes retaining traditional look: 50%
Does the village have a brahmana samooham: -na-
Does the village temple have a temple car (theru): 1. GANAPATHY THER, 2. SUBRAMANIA SWAMY THER, 3. VISWANATHA SWAMY THER
When was the last ashtabandhana kumbabhishekam done: 10-05-2019 SIVA TEMPLE, 08-05-2019 GANAPATHY TEMPLE

Contact Information

President – VIGNESH K.G – 8892297617

Secretary – BALASUBRAMANIAN-9400478442

TREASURER – VIGNESH PARAMESHWARAN– 8921462094

KANNAN – 9400478442

Well Known Elders from the Agraharam

VISHWANATHA DEEKSHITHAR (LATE)
CHIDAMBARA DEEKSHITHAR ( LATE )
VAIDHYALINGA DEEKSHITHAR ( LATE )
VENKIDESHWARA DEEKSHITHAR
VISHWESH SASTRI (IAS)

Food and Catering

V.R.D DORAI SAMY HOTEL

K.S.P IYER SWEETS

Hall for functions and Lodging

-na-

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 3 - 100 Agraharams Project

In the final Part - Part 3 of Koduvayur, we cover the rest of the agraharam including the Ganapathy temple.

In an article titled" THE EAST INDIA COMPANY AND THE PRINCIPAL RAJAS OF MALABAR" - Mr Yesuratnam mentions:

"The Zamorin would not allow small kingdoms to survive and there were a series of attacks on Valluvanad, and after capturing the territory from Erand to Nedunganad, his ambition goaded him to attack Palakkad and without much difficulty he brought Naduvattom under his control. Naduvattom was a strategic defence bastion for Palakkad and its capture by the Zamorin was a great blow to Komi Achan, the Raja of Palakkad. From Logan’s narration we understand that Achan requested Hyder Ali’s faujdar stationed at Dindigul to protect him from the avaricious Zamorin. He ordered the faujdar to send a massive force under Makhdoom Ali. The Zamorin’s forces had to flee before Makhdom Ali and Palakkad were restored to Achan. Dutch records also show Hyder’s intervention in Palakkad. In a letter to Colombo Dutch Commander Breekpot spoke of a second Mysorean army which had penetrated into the eastern parts of the Zamorin's dominions via Palghat. This was the first instance that brought Hyder Ali’s forces to Malabar. Palakkad victory gave Hyder the knowledge of enormous wealth and vast treasuries of Malabar Rajas obtained through overseas spice trade."

I felt that power struggle amongst the superset and subset rulers helped outside forces to wrest control over the region. The reason I tell you this is, always stand on the side of Dharma, even when you have differences with a co-follower of Sanatana. History is replete with instances of sibling rivalries ending up destroying kingdoms and civilizations.

I read from the Census studies book that this temple received about 12000 Paras of Paddy which I estimate will be from about 40 acres of land. I wonder if the temple has such lands in its possession today. Every temple had enormous lands vested to it by benefactors. Most agraharams do not have any records or if they have, the lands have been encroached upon. I read in an article in the thenewsminute.com - " in the Siva temple case in Palakkad district’s Mundur village where a writ petition has been filed against"... encroachers, "...the temple originally had 47.22 acres of land, but due to encroachment, it now possesses only 33 cents." "Advocate Krishna Raj and his team have initiated around 100 cases targeting individuals, trusts, and religious organisations, alleging encroachment upon Hindu temple lands."

Advocate Krishna Raj founded Save Deities in 2018 with the agenda to litigate cases involving alleged temple lands. Seven High Court lawyers are part of the group. They have a website savedeities.org which has details of court cases being fought by them and seeks donations for the cause. Their motto, as per the website, is ‘Deva Santhu Havirbhuja’, which means whatever the deity has all that is for the deity only. If you know for sure that your agraharam temple has lands which have been encroached upon, you may want to seek their free legal aid. Their website mentions "In general, to do all things that would uplift, upgrade, ameliorate and develop the sense of oneness among the Hindus which can influence the cultural attributions in the society and also provide free legal aid to the needy Hindus."

During my documenting of the agraharams I read that many temples had lands which are now untraceable or folks have just not had the support to search, locate and recover assets. I can only make a request to the advocates belonging to each agraharam to see if their respective temple lands exist and if encroached upon, make efforts to recover.

Radhe Krishna

Sriram(Hari)

100-Agraharams Project

Rama Bhagavathar Charitable Trust

August 3, 2024

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