Chowalloor Shiva Temple, Guruvayur – Legends

Chowalloor Shiva Temple, Guruvayur – Legends

108 Shiva Temples of Kerala:

According to Hindu mythology, Lord Parasurama created the land between Gokarna and Kanyakumari. Parasurama the sixth avatar of Maha Vishnu, he was youngest son of sage Jamadagni and Renuka. It is said that Kerala was reclaimed from the ocean using his axe for donating to Brahmins after killing of King Kartavirya Arjuna and other Kshatriyas. He split this land in to 64 villages (64 gramas). Out of these 64 villages, 32 villages are in between Perumpuzha and Gokarnam and the spoken language was Tulu.

The remaining 32 villages were in Malayalam speaking area between Perumpuzha and Kanyakumari. According legends, after donating the land to Brahmins108 Maha Shiva Lingam and Durga Idols were installed in these 64 villages. These 108 Shiva Temples are mentioned in the Shivala Stotram and song is written in Malayalam language. Of the 108 Siva Temples, 105 temples are situated in Kerala state, 2 temples in Karnataka and 1 in Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu.

Among these temples, the Lord Shiva of Gokarnam Mahabaleswara Temple in the north and Goddess Kumari of Kanyakumari temple in the south were considered as the protectors of Kerala. The first temple created by Parasurama was the Thrissur Vadakkunnathan Temple and the last one was the Thrikkariyoor Mahadeva Temple. This Temple is considered as one of the 108 Shiva Temples created by Lord Parasurama.

Equivalent to Vadakkunnathan:

Lord Siva, the deity of Thrissur Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple is said to have manifested himself on an umbrella carried by one of his ardent devotees, a pious old Namboothiri from Chowalloor Mazhavannoor Mana (lllam of Namboothiri), who used to walk all the way to Thrissur to have daily darshan of the Lord. When his devotee became too old to walk and worship him regularly, the Lord is said to have accompanied him to his native home in Chowalloor. Later a temple was constructed at the very place where the Lord appeared to his devotee and started regular pooja (Nithya Pooja).