Vadakkunnathan Temple, Thrissur
വടക്കുന്നാഥ ക്ഷേത്രം, തൃശ്ശൂർ
Why this temple matters
Crowning the green hill at the centre of Thrissur, Vadakkunnathan is the archetype of the Kerala temple — a circular shrine of laterite and timber under sweeping copper roofs, ringed by ancient murals, and held to be among the very oldest temples of the land, founded, tradition says, by Parasurama himself.
History
Vadakkunnathan is one of the oldest and most revered temples in Kerala, and the town of Thrissur — Tiru-Shiva-Perur, 'the town of the sacred Shiva' — grew up around it. Tradition ascribes its founding to Parasurama, the axe-bearing avatar of Vishnu who is said in myth to have raised Kerala from the sea, and the temple stands in Kerala devotion as one of his hundred and eight great shrines. Its historical fabric is medieval and later, elaborated over centuries by the rulers of Cochin and by the Zamorins, and it was here, in the temple town, that much of the region's religious and cultural life was centred. The great social reformer and poet-saints of Kerala are bound to it, and Adi Shankara, the philosopher of Advaita, is by tradition connected with Thrissur. Today the temple is protected as a monument of national importance while remaining a fully living shrine.
Architecture
Vadakkunnathan is a textbook of classical Kerala temple architecture, an idiom quite distinct from the stone towers of Tamil country. Its shrines are set within a vast walled precinct on the Thekkinkadu hill, entered through four monumental gopurams, but the buildings themselves are low and horizontal: circular and square srikovils of laterite and dressed stone, roofed in tier upon tier of copper sheeting that sweeps down in broad eaves against the monsoon. Three principal shrines stand within — to Shiva as Vadakkunnathan, to Sankaranarayana (the union of Shiva and Vishnu), and to Rama — each crowned with its own roof. The temple holds a koothambalam, the great pillared theatre-hall for temple arts, one of the finest in Kerala, and its inner walls carry celebrated murals in the vivid Kerala style. A striking feature is the towering mound of ghee before the Shiva shrine, formed over centuries from the abhisheka offerings poured upon the lingam.
Legends
The presiding form is Vadakkunnathan, 'the lord of the north', and the lingam is hidden within the great mound of ghee built up from generations of devotees' offerings, so that the god is worshipped as a hill of accumulated devotion rather than as bare stone. The legend of Parasurama, who is said to have installed the deity, ties the temple to the very origin-myth of Kerala. Another tradition holds that the temple marks the spot where Shiva granted a vision to his devotees facing north, hence the name. The union-form of Sankaranarayana enshrined here expresses the Kerala genius for reconciling the Shaiva and Vaishnava streams in a single image, and the presence of Rama alongside Shiva makes the temple a meeting-place of the region's great devotions.
Festivals
The temple is world-famous for the ground it stands on: the Thrissur Pooram, the most spectacular temple festival of Kerala, unfolds each year on the Thekkinkadu maidan around Vadakkunnathan. Two processions of caparisoned elephants, arrayed with golden headdresses and silk parasols, face one another to the thunder of the panchavadyam and chenda-melam drum orchestras, and the night ends in a great display of fireworks — a celebration drawing lakhs of people. Within the temple itself, the Shivaratri festival and the daily rhythm of Shaiva worship continue in the quieter, older manner. Though Vadakkunnathan does not itself parade its deity in the Pooram, its precincts are the sacred stage on which all Thrissur gathers.
The Experience
Vadakkunnathan rewards a quiet visit as much as a festival one. The temple crowns a wooded green hill — Thekkinkadu, the 'teak forest' — at the very centre of Thrissur, encircled by the road round which the Pooram revolves, so that the shrine is an island of calm in the busy town. Within the massive walls, the low copper-roofed shrines, the dim mural-painted halls, and the great koothambalam speak of an architecture made for shade and rain rather than for height. As with Kerala custom, entry to the shrines is reserved for Hindus and a traditional dress code applies. The temple is best combined with a visit to the town's museums and, if timing allows, with the incomparable spectacle of the Pooram in April or May.