Cherpulassery Ayyappan Kavu

Cherpulassery Ayyappan Kavu

Compiled by

P.R.Ramachander

Cherpulassery  ins an important town of Valluvanadu, and is between Pattambi and Perinthalmanna. It has one very famous  Ayyappan temple. Here Swamy  Ayyappan is with his wife Prabha devi   and son Sathyaka. This temple is called  as Sabarimala of Malabar as well as Sabarimala  of  women. This is one of the 108   Ayyappa temples  consecrated  by Lord Parsaurama,It seems Dharma Sastha  ascended the throne of this  temple  after gaining  mastery  in Vedas  ad so many people bring their  children for Vidhatambham   at this temple

There is an interesting story about its origin, It seems ten Nambhudiri families  were living  near this temple.One of them started  praying the Dharma Sastha at Thiruvullakavu sastha temple at Peruvanam  for the birth of a child to them  .On the day he completed his penance when he had decided to return back,  he saw a black stone near him, which was  not there before. As he was a scholar he could find out that it was Dharma Sastha  himself. So with the rice and Jaggery that he had ,  he prepared Ada and offered it to the idol .He indeed got a son  who became a mendicant  and passed away.Since there was no one in his family  , his manager  converted their residence in to the present temple ,The Gaeden of Jasmine maintained  by the Nambudiri  became the sanctum sanctorum  of the temple.  Nava Grahas , Ganapathy, Brahma Rakshas  and Nagaraja are  the upra devathas of this temple.

   This is one of the few temples of Lord ayyappa where marriages can be solemnized in front of Ayyappa A large number of pregnant women also visit this temple during the 7th month of their pregnancy. It is customary for expectant mothers to visit temples and seek the blessings of the deity. They typically start with the temples in their neighborhood and end this season of temple visits at the Cherpulassery Ayyappan Kavu. Ada is the favourite  offering to Lord Sastha  here There is a famous  ten day pooram festival in this temple

In this temp[e  Theeyattu  which consists of fire and   singing  of stories  is offered to the God as a special  offering .This is performed THiyyadi Nambiars

“The all-male art centres around the mythological story of the birth of Lord Ayyappa from the relationship of Lord Vishnu  in his ephemeral impersonation as Mohini  and Lord Shiva .

The most common version of Thiyyattu involves four phases of presentation: a) Kalamezhuthu (sketching the kalam—picture—of Ayyappa using natural pigments), b) Kottum Pattum (rendition of invocatory songs of Ayyappa and a stylised narration of the story of his birth), c) Koothu gesture -laden dance enacting the build-up story to the delivery of the lord) and d) Velichchappaadu (the slow-paced to frenzied dance of the oracle who eventually erases the kalam—the image of the lord sketched on the sanctified floor). It takes roughly a couple of hours for the kalam (image) of the lord to be completed, after which the rest of the three rituals would consume nearly three hours altogether.

The picture of Ayyappa is sketched and embellished in five natural colours—white (rice powder), yellow (turmeric powder), green (ground semi-dry leaves of the 'vaaka' or manchadi' tree, red (a mix of turmeric powder and slaked lime) and black (powdered charred rice husk). The lord invariably holds his weapons like the sword and the bow-and-arrow, and, in more elaborate versions is sketched mounted on the tiger or the horse.

The songs—accompanied by the beats of 'para', a smaller version of the chenda , and the cymbals called ilathalam —praising the lord bear a mix of quaint old Malayalam  and Tamil with a streak of endemic tunes, some of which can be traced to classical ragas of the Sopanam style of Kerala music besides that belonging to the Carnatic idiom. The stylised rendition of the birth of Ayyappa, called Thottam, also sticks to the same mix of languages, but is devoid of music.

The Koothu is enacted with no make-up but a defined set of costumes. Facial emotions are nil, dance movements are minimal and hand gestures would look the less refined versions of Koodiyattam and Kathakali . The Koothu is usually performed to the accompaniment of chenda, ilathalam and 'para'.

The Velichchappadu (oracle), wielding a small sword, is bare-chested but for the garland and, canonically, with a flowy hair; the face either bearded or clean-shaven. Around the waist, he is draped in cloth pieces of white and red colours. The oracle begins with slow steps while circumambulating around the 'kalam', but the tempo gains with the circles he make—around 9 or 11 of them, overall. Then he leaps onto the image in a frenzy, but is calm when he later erases the image with both legs. The face of the lord alone is erased with the (right) hand. Out from the 'kalam', the oracle utters 'revelatory' sentences in (presumed) trance -- 'kalpana' as they are called. The devotees are distributed with the prasadam which is the mixed powder used in the 'kalam'.

The art is sometimes staged in bigger forms that last from dawn to late night when it is called Udayasthamaya Thiyyattu. In such cases, the Koothu would deal with twelve stories ahead of the birth of Ayyappa. Such performances usually feature the challenging 'Pantheeraayiram', which is when the oracle would take a (three- to four-hour-long) break from the circumambulations to break (dehusked and sufficiently polished) coconuts totalling 12,000 to the rhythmic beats of chenda-and-ilathalam concert that would gain speed towards the climax.

The Thiyyadi Nambiar families, despite their existence in central Kerala, enjoy the popularity of their art more in the upstate Malabar belt. “ (Quoted from Wikipedia)

The temple  opens daily at 5 Am   and is open up to 11.30 Am  and again opens in 5pm   and is kept open till 8 pm

The nearest Bus stand is Ottha palam  from where the temple is 17 km away .Buses are  also available from Pattambi and Perinthalmanna.   and the temple address is 

Sree Cherpulassery Ayyappankavu

Cherpulassery (po) Palakkad
Pin:679503 Ph: 0466 2282304