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Thrikkakara Deliverance

Myths apart, the temple fell into bad times in the 15th century as the governance of the land fell into European hands and the maintenance of the temples fell into neglect. Even though the temple at passed from the hands of the kalkarainadu chief to the hands of Edapally chief, he did not take any steps to renovate or guard it. As the Edapally raja was a former priest of the temple, the devotees were also embittered against him. An Edapally chief married a princess of the perumbadappu royal family and gave the islands of Vaipin and Kochi as a gift to his son, who was the perumbadappu swarupam. This was resented by the royal family at Edapally and in later times the Edapally chief waged a war against the perumbadapu swarupam to reclaim the islands. Because of this enmity between the two, the Edapally raja always allied with the Zamorin when the Zamorin battled against the Kochi king. Thus the Edapally raja who was originally a relative of the Kochi raja became a vassal of the Zamorin so the obligation to look after the temple fell on the shoulders of the Zamorin. Now, neither the Zamorin nor the Edapally Raja had the resources or time to look into the upkeep of the temple; this led the temple to slip into a state of dilapidation.

As the temple was situated atop a hill, it was not frequented by devotees, and the temple was almost abandoned. Huge trees started growing even inside the temple precincts. When the sanctum sanctorum fell one day, the main idol was smashed. Once the land fell fully into the British rule and the Edapally merged into Travancore, the temple too became a part of Travancore. It remained in the ruins until the reign of Sreemoolam Tirunal.

It is said that it was Edapally Shnkara Menon who was the Peshkar of Kottayam at the time of sreemoolam tirunal who informed the king about the ruined temple. According to other sources, it was the desire of Gopiath Rao, the head of the department of Archaeology and hundreds of vaishnavite devotees that led the king to issue the royal proclamation to renovate the temple. The reconstruction of the temple began in 1085 kollam era. The project was completed in 1123 kollam era. The next peshkar shankara narayana iyer wanted to eliminate unnecessary expenses; hence he avoided the construction of the Nalambalam, Vilakumadam and Gopuram of the temple to cut down costs. On 1948, 25th of the Malayalam month of midhunam, the new idol was re installed and the purification rites were performed, but the new temple lacks the glory, majesty and its dimensions are smaller than the former one.