The Temple of Thirumandamkunnu

Kerala is a mystic land filled with innumerable temples all of which have strange and amazing legends attached to them. Kerala temple architecture is not ornamental like Tamil Nadu. In fact the temples often look like large houses and have unpretentious gopurams 
“crown of a temple”, and tiled roofs. Their outstanding feature is the flag staff outside the entrance which is often covered with gold. Though they look very ordinary, from the outside, the fact is that the Kerala temples are repositories of the great psychic power amassed by the great saints who founded them and who did intense tapas on that spot. Temples to the divine mother goddess are most prevalent in Kerala. All of them have great Shakti or divine  power in them. Thirumandhamkunnu Bhagavathy temple is one of the most ancient and powerful Mahakshethras (famous temples) of Kerala. The main deity is Bhadrakali and she is very powerful here.


                  

BadriKali


My daughter and I decided to visit this temple since we were already in the vicinity of Malappuram district in which the temple is based. We went in the evening when the sun was just dipping down over the horizon. It was the most beautiful time of day. We have to climb up quite a few steps to reach the temple which is situated on a hillock. It has a fabulous view of coconut trees and small hills in the distance. When you come up from the car park the first temple you see is the famous one of Ganesha which is open only on Fridays, Tuesdays and Sundays. Even though the door is closed you can climb up a step and peep through a small aperture which gives you good darshana of the beautiful idol of Ganesha. He is actually famous for removing all obstacles in the way of a girl contracting a good marriage. Every year a special puja used to be conducted on the first Friday of the Malayalam month of Thulam (September/October). If this is done for three consecutive years, the girl was sure to make a very good alliance. However since there is such a demand for this puja, it is now conducted on all Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays which are considered auspicious for the goddess





We have to go round the Ganesha temple before reaching the main entrance to the Bhadrakali temple. The huge golden flagstaff guards the temple entrance. It is not easy to enter by this doorway since one has to climb over a high step on which we cannot put our foot. This is the entrance which faces the goddess but as we enter, on our right side is the temple to Shiva which has to be worshipped first before entering what is known as the Matrushala or the abode of the Mother. The huge idol of the divine mother is made of “daru” which is actually the jackfruit tree. A number of Bhadrakali temples in Kerala have idols made of daru but this is said to be the best.  We can see the idol only by standing to the right or by peeping through a small window in front of her since she is not kept in front of the door but to the left. Apparently she is so powerful that no one can look at her face to face. Even when we look sideways from the right, we can see that she is a most imposing figure about six feet high. She is in a sitting position with the right leg hanging down and the left leg on her right lap. Normally she is covered in a golden mask but when we went this had been removed so we could see her as she was made in black wood. She was pitch black with quite a forbidding look. One has to look carefully to see that she has a crown and ornaments covering her naked breast. She wears bangles and anklets. She is “ashtabhuja” or eight-handed. One hand holds the head of the demon Darika and the others hold various weapons. Behind her we can see the Sapta Matrikas or the seven divine mother- goddesses. Since the light is quite dim we really can’t make out the faces of the Matrikas. By divine grace we had reached at the arati time so we could really enjoy the exhilarating effect of this confrontation with the goddess. As the priest moved the lights slowly over her figure, each part seemed to come to life, lit up by the flickering flames.

The child Ganesha is worshipped below the peepul tree on the west side of the temple. We were really happy since we had gone there on Ganesha chaturthi day which is special to Ganesha.