Sri Mutthappan is a historical character like Sri Ayyappan. His advent took place around the same time. His temple is in a place called Parassinikadavu on the Valapattanam River, close to the town of Kannur in Kerala.  The story of his advent in this holy land of Kerala, is quite fascinating. About five hundred years ago there was a well known “illam” (which is a Namboodiri household in Kerala), known as Ayyankara. The head of the family was Vazhunnavar and his wife was Padikutty. (The Brahmins of Kerala are known as Namboodiris.) It was a flourishing household and the couple had no dearth of worldly goods but unfortunately they were not blessed with progeny. Padikutty was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and used to go to the Shiva temple of Payyavoor daily. Every morning she would get up very early and go to the Payyavoor River along with her seven maids to have a bath before going to the temple. Her constant prayer to the Lord was to bless her with a son. One night she had a dream that Lord Shiva came and blessed her. Next morning when she went to the river and dipped she felt some sort of thrill going through her. Again and again she dipped and again and again she was filled with ecstasy. When she came up she suddenly spied a basket woven out of green coconut leaves floating on the water. The basket came and rested on a rock on the river banks. When she looked into the basket she saw an enchanting baby boy filled with an aura of divinity lying inside, kicking his tiny feet and gurgling with joy. She gathered the treasure into her arms and dashed back to the illam. She showed the baby to her husband with these words, “Itu Mutho Appa!”  “Oh! God This is a pearl!” Somehow this name stuck and he was called Muthappan. Her husband was also delighted and decided to adopt the child as it appeared to be a gift from Lord Shiva.  The child was given all the Vedic learning which is most necessary for a Brahmin child. However as the child grew up the parents found to their horror that the child showed total disinterest in Vedic studies and always ran off to play with low caste boys of the village. Soon he became an expert in archery. He would shoot birds and go fishing with the boys. Along with these boys he would eat meat and drink toddy (fermented drink tapped from the coconut tree). The villagers were horrified to see the son of their Brahmin chieftain resort to such low caste pursuits and complained to the father but unfortunately, his father could not deter him from his shocking ways. Unable to bear the behaviour of his beloved son, Vazhunnavar decided to leave the house and go to the forest. He spoke bitterly to his wife. “I cannot bear this disgrace anymore. I am leaving. You can live here along with your beloved son.” On hearing these shocking words of her husband, Padikutty fell down in a faint.


In those days the Namboodiris used to be very cruel to the lower castes. They would not even walk on a road on which some low caste was walking. His servant would run before the Namboodiri and shoo off any low caste who dared to walk there. Mutthappan’s incarnation was to teach the Namboodiris a lesson – that God did not discriminate between high and low. But unfortunately they never learnt this lesson for many centuries which is what has led them to their present plight.      
 
Mutthappan blessed his parents and proceeded to the forest known as Kunnathurpadi. He had a black beard and was clad like a hunter, in black clothes with head covered with a cap of peacock feathers, carrying a bow and arrows in his hands. Kunnathurpadi was a delightful place. It was filled with sugar cane plants round which bumble bees buzzed, tall coconut palms and another type of sweet palm tree which produced a delicious intoxicating drink like toddy. As was his custom Mutthappan used to climb this palm tree and drink the delectable toddy every day. The two tribals who used to tap this palm tree now started to suspect each other of having stolen the toddy. The elder one called Chandan decided to catch the culprit and hid in the trees armed with bow and arrows. In the morning he saw a bearded man quickly scramble up the tree and help himself to the intoxicating drink. Chandan used the most scurrilous language and shouted to the man to come down immediately. Mutthappan totally disregarded the barrage which was directed at him and continued with his pleasant occupation. This enraged Chandan even more and he pointed his arrow at the miscreant. Before he could shoot, Mutthappan turned his piercing glance at him and immediately Chandan froze into a stone figure. Wondering at the long absence of her husband, Chandan’s wife came to that spot and was shocked to see her husband turned into stone. When she looked up she saw a bearded man sitting atop the palm tree laughing at her. His fame had preceded him and she recognised him immediately and said, “Oh! Muthappa!” and vowed to give him roasted fish and the toddy of the sweet palm tree if he released her husband. Hearing the rather unusual bribe offered by the poor woman which was entirely to his liking, Mutthappan immediately released her husband. After this he continued to stay on in that enchanted forest with the tribals for some years.

Keeping to the tradition of the tribals, Mutthappan used to join their hunting parties. He had seven dogs with various names which sound strange even to the present day Malayalees. He would shout out to these dogs calling them, “Irattavalan! Nambiyrattan! Chevurum Chathan! Chembullikannan! And so on. The dogs would come bounding up to him and all of them would set out in great glee. After returning Mutthappan himself would bathe and feed the dogs who loved him dearly. For some years he lived amongst the tribals as one of them, eating their food, the meat they got from hunting and drinking the sweet toddy and generally behaving as one of them.

He knew that the goal of his life was still to be realised so he left his friends and proceeded to the hill called, “Pularimala”, which was part of the domain of  the kings of Kottayam who were the arrogant rulers of that place. They owned everything and behaved in a most cruel fashion to all the citizens. When they heard that the king was coming in his palanquin, the citizens would run helter skelter and take shelter wherever they could to avoid being seen by him. It was high time that something was done to stop this cruel king and that is why Mutthappan decided to go there.

He proceeded towards the king’s fortress called Harischandra Kotta. He subdued him completely. The king agreed to look upon Mutthappan as his king. Mutthappan reinstated him as the ruler on condition that he stopped harassing the low caste people and treated everyone with equal respect.

Once Mutthappan was resting under a tree after his various victories. When he rose up to go he picked up his bow which had got stuck on an ant hill. He pulled the bow out and the ant hill opened to reveal a divine sage totally covered with ashes. The sage accosted Mutthappa as “Narayana!” and Mutthappan in turn called him “Cherukka!” From that time onwards the two of them travelled together. He is known as “Cheriya Mutthappan” and is supposed to be the incarnation of Lord Shiva just as Mutthappan is the incarnation of Vishnu and is known as “Valiya Mutthappan.”. “Cheriya” means “small” and “valiya” means “big” in Malayalam.   
      
After this both of them went round the whole of that district overcoming all the vicious kings and Namboodiris who used to behave so cruelly to all the lower caste people. The kings realised that there was no way they could beat these two in warfare so they decided to poison them. Knowing their liking for liquor, they added poison to the toddy and gave it to them. They were delighted to see that both Mutthappans drank lavishly of the toxic liquor. But to their amazement nothing happened to either of them. On the contrary all those who had participated in this foul deed spat blood and died.

Mutthappan now decided that it was time for him to establish his cult and make a temple for both of them. He is said to have sent an arrow to a distant place. The arrow plunged into a tree at the place called Parassinikadavu on the banks of the beautiful river called Valappattanam which is 16 kms from the town of Kannur.

This arrow was spotted by a man from the Madayan caste who was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. The arrow was glowing with an ethereal light and the man knew that it must be a divine weapon. “Whose could this be?” He thought to himself and immediately Sri Mutthappan appeared before him. He ran to get the chieftain of their clan who came immediately. Sri Mutthappan gave him also the divine vision of himself before disappearing. He ordered them how to go about the establishment of his temple. After this he vanished and no one was ever able to find his body or trace his disappearance. These people were the last to see him in a human form.

The two men now cleared the ground round the tree where the arrow was still sticking. They kept a stone there and started offering worship to it. The food offerings were of fish, wrapped in banana leaf and roasted on hot coals and toddy from the sweet palm which were Mutthappan’s favourites. Muthappan had decreed this to be his preferred food in defiance of the normal offerings of the Namboodiri clan. He wanted to establish the fact that God accepted whatever was offered to him with love. We always offer whatever we find delectable to God. These low caste people loved fish and toddy. That was their staple diet. Naturally Mutthappan declared that he also liked the same things. Realising that the arrow was divine and had been sent by the divinity that had appeared before their eyes, the two men started worshipping the stone. First they made a small temple above it. They were the first ones who started the worship of Sri Mutthappan even though they were not Brahmins.

 This tradition has continued to this day. The man who does all the pujas is known as Madayan after the first Madayan to whom he showed himself. The progeny of this family are the ones who do the pujas and also they are the ones who enact the drama of Big Mutthappan and small Mutthapan. In course of time the temple grew in size and had a roof put over it and so on. The two idols which are worshipped here are considered to be of Vishnu and Shiva.

There are many miracles attributed to Sri Mutthappan. I can well believe it because of the miraculous way in which I was taken there. I really had not even heard about this temple except in a vague way but when we went on the trip to Mridanga Shaileswari we were booked to stay the previous night in the town called Tellichery. At that time someone mentioned about the famous temple of Sri Mutthappan which was only 40 kms from there. I immediately pricked up my ears and said, “Why don’t we go there?” 

We reached at twilight and I was really charmed by the river which gurgled and flowed right in front of the temple. It was quite a delightful sight especially since the sky was tinted in pinks and purples by the setting sun. We went to wash our feet in the translucent water before entering the temple. It was rather a strange looking temple. It had a huge sort of hall all round it and one could see that the actual temple was a small, cute one right in the middle. Lots of people were sitting on either side of the hall on raised platforms. Men were seated on the right and women on the left. However I went in and peered into the sanctum. It was right in front of me and not far away as it normally is in most temples. I could easily put my hand in and touch the idols. The idols were quite strange. One was of a bearded man carrying a bow and arrows and the other was one of a person with a huge stomach, obviously “Valiaya Mutthappan and Cheriya Mutthappan”. A man wearing just a piece of cloth was doing something inside. As he came out I asked him if there was anything which could be offered here. He made vague gestures and drew a red cloth in front of the figures thus blocking the view. The others in my party said, “We are lucky to have had darshan before the temple closed so now let us go.”

I said, “But what about all these people who are sitting obviously waiting for some event. Let me ask someone.”
 I went out and asked the office about this. They were most uninformative. They vaguely said that he veil would be opened only at 6.30 pm and we could wait if we wanted to! Further questioning uncovered the fact that the main method of worship here was the enactment of a ritual in which one or both the characters known as Muthappan enact a sort of dance drama through a traditional dance known as Mutthappan Theyyam and this was about to take place at 7 pm and that is why people were waiting expectantly! I immediately informed the rest of the party that I felt that we were brought here only to take part in this event and I was not prepared to go without seeing it.

(“Theyyam” is an important dance form in Kerala which is most popular in N. Kerala in the Kannur district and in Wynad. It is a ritual form of worship in which the person who is acting as the Theyyam is worshipped as the deity and acts as an oracle. It is a living cult which has been practiced in those regions for thousands of years. The performers of the Theyyam normally belong to a lower caste.)


(As has been said before Mutthappan wanted to break away from the traditional Namboodiri worship and allow lower castes to worship in temples. In modern times Sri Narayana Guru who was a great saint belonging to the Thiyya caste who did the same thing and started temples in which lower castes were allowed to conduct pujas much to the chagrin of the Namboodiris who had had a monopoly of rituals in temples for centuries. But as has been mentioned Mutthappan’s temple is unique for other reasons mainly in the type of offerings which are made. Fish, meat and toddy are the customary offerings.)

This dance went on for a long time and eventually he went round the whole group which was standing there in a semi circle facing the deities and touched the people standing in the front row with his sword and waved his red cloth over them and scattered rice over others. It was really a most interesting performance. But what intrigued me most was the appearance of a bitch at the very height of the ritual. She lay in front of him quite unconcerned by the deafening music which was going on. In fact I did notice the moment we entered the temple that quite a few dogs had the run of the place which is something one would never see in any other temple. The bitch lay there without blinking an eyelid and when the offerings were made to a small black stone at one side she ran there and was given a bit of the Prasad. Unfortunately I couldn’t see what it was. But I presumed it must have been a bit of fish or meat.  Having got what she wanted she trotted off without a backward glance. She obviously had a brood of puppies waiting to be fed! After the full ritual was over the Theyyam sat in the centre of the hall and everyone crowded round him. I was told that it was customary to ask his advice on all matters and he would give replies and even make prophetic utterances. The crowd jostling around him was too big so I did not like to attempt to go near him.
When we went out we were told that Mutthappan served Prasad to all who went and it was compulsory to eat. I was a bit worried and wondered if we would be asked to eat roast fish and drink toddy. It was with great trepidation that I went and sat on the bench provided for devotees. Many people were sitting and eating. A man with a push tray was bringing round tea!! Not toddy, thank God! Another man was bringing round small leaf bowls filled with green boiled beans which is a popular snack in Kerala especially amongst the poorer classes. Apparently any devotee who came to pray at the temple was also given free accommodation and food for as long as he wanted to stay. The temple makes no discrimination between castes and creeds. Christians, Muslims and all types of Hindus were welcome to come and stay as long as they liked.

The temple is noted for the charitable services it does to the poor. It runs a free school which gives free food to the children. It also gives free medical service to all.

Thus Sri Mutthappan continues to keep his promise to posterity that he would impartially give succour and aid to the poor, the distressed and the sick. I was indeed grateful to him for having taken me there without any previous planning. Once again before leaving I went to the river and paid homage to her for she was the one who was constantly washing his divine feet as she wound her way to the Arabian Sea. The sun had set long ago and the sky was beginning to fill with a million sparkling lights which lit up the stray boats with thatched roofs and hanging lanterns which wound their way down the river towards their unknown destinations.
Jai Sri Mutthapan

Mookambika Devi in Kollur