SREE VADAKKUNATHAN TEMPLE AT THRISSUR KERALA.

Thrissur is about 80 kms from Kochi airport.  On one of my official duties, I was in NPOL Cochin during 7 March 010 upto 11 March 2010. On Monday, 8thMarch 2010, I went to C-MET Thrissur to hear to the lecture of one of the world renouned Professor R Rao Tummala.  Professor is Packaging GURU who has developed the first packages for Personal Computers and is leading the world till date. The lecture was arranged in LuLu International convertion cenre and it is very useful and Memorable lecture.

In the afternoon 3PM to 6PM i have spend visiting the C-MET lab. and discussing the things of importance for my work.  This is the fruitful trip as I have found the necessary inputs for my immediate needs in the subject field.  At 6PM, I started back to Cochin Guest House.  On the way, we visited the SREE VADAKKUNATHAN temple.  POORAM  festival is one of the main  attractions in Thrisuur.  This is a huge temple.  Temples in Kerala have special bunglow type strucutres and are different from the huge sotne carved structures of Andhra, Karnataka and Tamilnadu.  


Before the entry into the main temple area that is after crossing the first Prakaram I have removed my shirt and banian and went inside.  There are more temples inside the main temple Vadakkunathan Shiva linga with a tall half moon shaped golden petals one on top of the other around 21 nos. and at the top Nagabharam Hood of Naga.  The main diety has to be worshipped from a long distance of atleast 10 meters so, it is seen from a distance.  Worshippers are not permitted inside the main diety and garbha gudi.  Only one book is available without photos  (27 pages) from the temple side. that describes the stala purana.  Parasurama has created this temple at the Moola stana the tree outside the temple where we were not supposed to sit.  


The deity Shiva is in the form of a big ‘mahalingam’. Here the main offering is ghee. The devotees brought ghee pours on the ‘lingam’ The years’ offerings has concealed the lingam. At present the devotees can see only a mound of ghee. As a miracle, the ghee does not melt or emit any smell, though in summer the temperature rises upto 35 degree C. It is said, part of the ghee is more than 1000 years old. The ghee will not be removed. If and when any portion of the mount is collapsed, the same will be sold. If a collapse is taken place, it is believed as a sign of some evil about to happen inThrissur. Seven years back there was a partial collapse of ghee prior to the Pooram and during the Pooram a fireworks accident snatched the life of three.

VADAKKUNATHAN SHIVA TEMPLE AT THRISSUR, KERALA

On Monday 8th March 2010 I went to Thrissur to hear to the lecture of Tummala R. Rao of Georgia Tech University on Packaging challenges for 3-D ICs and SOP, a lecture that Profesor is delivering at the Foundation celebrations of C-MET Thrissur.  This is a rare and valuable lecture and the contents are very useful in relation o our MEMS packaging as well.  I met him after the lecture for a short while.  In the afternoon at 3 PM we reached Thrissur C-MET lab. and I have visited the place for 3 Hrs. Then we started back to Cochin.  On the way, we have seen, SREE VADAKKUNATHAN TEMPLE. The construction and outer strucutre of the temples in Kerala are special in its own way.  Unlike, the huge stone carved structures and Gali Gopurams in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamilnadu areas, in  Kerala the temples are construcuted with Buglow type strucutres.  But, worshippers remove the shirt and banian as well and hang the shirt to the right hand shoulder.  While worshipping Pradakshina around the temple is allowed  only if the the Ganga carrying the Abhisheka Jalam from the diety to the outside is not on the way.  If it is on the way of Pradakshina cicle, one has to stopfull round but, to go back in the reverse direction.  For me it was confusing for a while.  This happened in the Cochin Shiva temple.

VAMANA TEMPLE COCHIN

On 10  March 2010 Wednesday morning 7 am I visited the Vamana temple at Cochin.  This temple is famous for the Vamana Avatar of Sri Maha Vishnu and the great grand celebrations of the Cochin ONUM festival is organised by this  temple committee.  It is about 2 kms from NPOL Guest House where I stayed during my visit 7 to 10 March 2010.

 Some interesting rituals related to Onam at Thrikkakara temple in Ernakulam are famous. This temple, is dedicated to Vamanamoorthy, one of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Vamana has a prominent role in the legends associated with Onam. It was he who requested Mahabali, the generous king who ruled Kerala for three steps of land. On receiving the nod, The festival spirit of Onam is in the air, 

According to myths, Mahabali or Maveli was a generous and virtuous ruler, who had once ruled Kerala. Under him, the state attained remarkable property that excelled even the heavens. The Devas (gods) could not agree to it since King Mahabali was by birth an Asura (demon), who were the enemies of the Devas. So, they sent Lord Vishnu in the guise of Vamana, a dwarf to Mahabali. Vamana requested Mahabali for three steps of land. On receiving the nod, Vamana grew so huge that he covered all the worlds in two steps. Since he had no space to place the third step, Mahabali offered his head for the third step.  Vamana blessed Bali before he was sent to the Pathala Loka and granted him boon to visit his rajya and praja once in every year. This occasion is celebrated as Onam. This temple dedicated to Vamana and is one of those rare temples in the state where Onam festival is celebrated in a grand scale.

VAMANA TEMPLE, COCHIN,KERALA