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Where arrows turned blossoms
The powerful deity at Kaadampuzha ...
KAADAMPUZHA IS about a one-and-a-half hour drive away from Pattambi, into the hills. The route passes through the trading town of Kunnamkulam, and the tiny temple town is located off the Calicut highway, 16 kilometres from Kottakal.
Kaadampuzha itself is a pretty nondescript place, though the drive is lovely. A clearing for buses and arriving vehicles makes it obvious that the temple is very popular, largely known only to Keralites.
A long stepped passage leads one down to the temple proper — no great temple tower, but just a simple sanctum, striking in its strangely austere antiquity, all of 5000 years old.
The peculiarity here is that there is no roof over the main shrine, left open to sky.
This is the site where, in the kaadu (forest), Arjuna of the Pandavas, had done severe penance, to get a glimpse of Siva, and gain His blessings, before the Mahabharata war.
Deep in meditation, Arjuna was repeatedly disturbed by a hunter. He became very angry, and started shooting arrows at the intruder. To his amazement, the arrows were turning to flowers, on striking the hunter. Realisation dawned on Arjuna, that this was no mere mortal, but Siva Himself. Thus came about the name Kaadampuzha — Kaadu, ambu, puzha — the forest where arrows turned to flowers.
Wandering about many centuries later, Adi Sankara came upon this site, and installed a Srichakram, and the tiny image of Devi. She is called Vanadurga. `Poomoodal' or covering the small peetam with flowers is a special pooja here.
In a rare instance of deviation the main shrine is without a roof.
`Muttirakkal' is the main ritual, done everyday. The priest breaks coconuts given by devotees, in the sanctum. It is believed to be auspicious if the nut breaks into exact halves.
On Pratisht Dinami, the installation day of the deity, devotees are treated to a grant feast.
The priest can be seen sitting on the floor near the peetam in the tiny, open shrine, from across the passage. People throw coins into a small enclosure in front of the sanctum.
Offerings of various cooked prasadams can be made to the deity by a simple payment of money towards one's choice — the temple's kitchens have it all ready, early in the morning.
The entire offering is given as prasadam, on plantain leaves, piping hot, to the devotees.
The temple follows one of the strictest regimens. It is open for worship only for about 2 hours in the morning, and 2 hours in the evening, till about 6 p.m. Thereafter the doors are shut, and even the priests have to leave the premises at once.
Legend has it that this is done to facilitate serpents to move in, to perform their worship to the Goddess.
The beauty of Kaadampuzha is not in exquisite sculptures or architecture, but in the radiant divinity of the place.
Try as one might, climbing up and down, one is unable to get even a glimpse of the temple roof from above, so securely has Nature seen to it that the ancient sanctity of this rare temple is absolutely preserved.
Small shops line the lane outside the temple, selling photos and books.
Most are pictures of `poomoodal', the flower-decked peetam. Some dealers have the photo of a lovely Goddess, a reprint of the original Kerala vegetable dye paintings of yore — `this is Adi Sankara's bhavana (imagination)', they say, of the Kaadampuzha Devi.
RUPA GOPAL
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