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Thrikkakara The Curse and the Dilapidation

 

Several legends and myths are linked with the temple’s sinking into oblivion after the break up of the Cheraman Empire. One of the most talked about myths is about the curse of a yogi turned Brahma Rakshas plaguing the divya desa and plunging it into abject penury and negligence. It goes as follows.

A sincere devotee who was a farmer heard of Vishnu appearing to Kapila Mahrishi and decided to visit Thirukkatkarai to pray to the same lord to resolve his small problem. He had good plantain trees but to his dismay none of them yielded fruits. He did not know why the trees were barren. He promised a golden bunch of plantains to the Perumal and prayed for a luscious yield in his field. His wish was granted. The katksha of the lord fell on his plantain orchard and it yielded plentifully. It is said that is why the particular type of plantain fruit found in kerala is known as Nendran Kaai, “Nendram” being the corrupted word for the term “Netia” i.e. eye or kataksha of the lord. In brief when the divine grace of the lord’s eyes fell on the farmer’s orchard, he had a bountiful copious yield of sweet fruits. In return for this blessing that farmer kept up his vow and made a bunch of golden plantains and offered it to the temple. It is said that when the golden fruits were brought to the temple precincts the priest asked the devotee to place it near the mukhdwara as he had to go for his ritualistic bath before offering pooja. At that time one other person was present.

He was a yogi doing japa in the mandapa. As directed the farmer went to take bath in the ‘Danodakapoika’ leaving the golden bunch of plantains at the mukhadwara. The farmer returned after the bath and found the golden bunch missing. The matter was reported to the king. Suspicion centered on the yogi who was undertaking a bhajan there. The king also delivered his judgment and said that the culprit was the yogi. The people abused the yogi and ill treated him even though the yogi claimed that he was innocent. He was punished too. But the next day while performing abhisekha for the deity the priest found that the water in the garbagriha was stagnating. On checking, to the priest’s dismay, he saw that the outlet was blocked by the missing golden bunch of plantain fruits. He felt very ashamed in having accused the holy man. He informed the king about it and the king himself came and apologized to the yogi. But the damage was already done; the yogi felt humiliated. The yogi felt that the king had rushed to a rash conclusion and had behaved in a manner unworthy of a great ruler. He felt he could not stand the humiliation and committed suicide by hanging himself on the banyan tree in the temple courtyard. Before he committed suicide, he cursed the king as well as the citizens and said that these people who had no foresight or sense of justice should suffer with abject poverty, be denied clothes and food. His curse was couched in words which spelt eternal misery with no time frame for the curse. The people begged the yogi to forgive them and the yogi relented and said that the curse will cease to have effect only on the day the people in the village reach absolute penury as to have only a thatched roof – Koorai Veedu over their head and a burning stack of weeds – Kolli Katti for light. In effect it meant that the prosperous town would lose all its wealth and glory and only then the anger of the yogi would be cooled.

The yogi’s anger was also thrust on the presiding deity. He cursed the deity who didn’t come to his defense saying that the power and glory of thrikkakkarapan will deteriorate before he hung himself. A heavenly voice thundered from the skies asking / pleading the yogi to deliver the temple from the bane. The yogi uttered these words in reply, “the temple will be delivered from the curse, only after its doors are made of bamboo, its lamp from weeds (Kollivilaku) and its naivedyam served in dried jackfruit leaves (puzhukappilavila) for several years meaning that it would only get salvation from the curse after a state of complete deterioration befalls it.

The yogi who committed suicide became a Brahma rakshas due to his unnatural and untimely death. He roamed about the town in the night and the people were frightened to move about. They decided to propitiate the yogi. The people of the town therefore unanimously decided to build a small shrine in the outer prakara of the temple for the Brahma rakshasa. They used to offer as naivedyam the offering given to Thirukkakkarai appan himself earlier. Even today the practice continues. It is said that once this practice was introduced, the Brahma rakshas was appeased.

Later the town was conquered by the Jains. The people became penniless paupers and could only build a bamboo thatched roof over their head and used to burn Korai grass for having light. The temple also fell into bad times; the number of devotees started diminishing; the offerings became rare; the dilapidated temples started falling apart; the sanctum was razed down and the condition of the curse materialized – the door of the temple had to be made with bamboo sticks. The temple came to be overrun with thorny bushes. Soon lamps came to be lighted with the twigs and the naivedyam came to be served in jack fruit leaves.

Thus the duration of the curse ended. The Chera rajas invaded this town and reclaimed it from Jains. They renovated the temple and the town became prosperous again.

Another legend that surrounds the temple’s demise of glory is as follows;

This particular incident occurred at a time when the princely states of Kochi and ellangallur were constantly engaged in constant wars and rivalaries. It was revealed to the Kochi king that the power, glory and the invincibility of the Edapally king was due to the might of the power of the Thrikkakarai apan. He searched high and low for a remedy and finally he found help in the form of a Bhattathiri who was both a learned scholar and a magician. The Koch raja asked the Bhattathiri to help him, on which the bhatathiri asked for a period of a Mandala to fulfill the raja’s wish to diminish the power of the Thrikkakkara deity.

The Bhattathiri left for Thrikkakara in the guise of a poor Brahman. He convinced the priest and other temple workers that he was at the temple for ‘Bhajan’ for 41 days. He used to be at the Vamana moorthy’s mandapa early at dawn reciting the Vishnusahasranama, Purushasuktam, the Vamana avatara of the Narayaniyam etc; thus within a few days, through his courteous behavior and eloquent speech, he won over the temple priest and other authorities. He would eat only the ‘Onakachoru’ of the temple and sleep in the balikalpura. He started performing ‘pushpanjali’ to the vamanamoorthy idol with the consent of the head priest. On the forty first day, the Bhattathiri entered the Sreekovil, performed the pushpanjali and invoked the spirit to enter into a conch.

He then returned to Thripunithara and installed the conch at the palace’s thevarapura. As a result of this, the divinity of the Thrikkakara appan was lost and the glory of the deity faded out. The ellangallur namboothiri was ignorant of all this as he was not interested in temple affairs.

The bhattathiri was generously rewarded with precious gifts and valuables by the Kochi raja. Even though he accepted the gifts, he distributed them among the poor. The guilt of his evil deed began tormenting him. He tried chanting the Vishnu sahasranama and the purushasukta one lakh times each, but the deity was not pacified and it is said that the bhattathiri met with a pathetic end after being stricken blind.