Aranmula Temple

Aranmula is famous as a temple village and the Lord Parthasarathy temple here is visited by people from across India, mainly the southern states. The Vallam Kali , boat race, linked to the temple here, is world famous. Situated in the sylvan surroundings on the banks of the holy river Pampa this ancient temple village is a cradle of civilization in this part of the country. The huge temple of wood and stone is at an elevated platform on the river banks and has the idol of Maha Vishnu, though devotees believe it to be Krishna as Parthasarathy. Parthasarathy is Krishna as the charioteer of Arjuna in the Kurukshetra war. It is one among the five major Vaishnava temples in the region. Legends tell that these temples have, each one of them, idols worshipped by the five Pandava brothers when they visited the south western peninsula. The Aranmula temple according to this legend is from Arjuna.

 

Sources from Literature

Considered one of the most important Vaishnava temples of South India it has great antiquity and finds mention in ancient Tamil texts , Tamil was the language of the entire region then. The region has undergone historic transitions, and there must have been changes in modes of worship as well, is obvious. As can be inferred the Jain, Budhist, Saivaite, Vaishnava streams, from what is known, later merged to form what is presently there. In the work Thiruvaymozhi of Saint Nammalwar the temple is called Thiruvaarin vilai, and the deity is called Thirukuralappan. The book, which many scholars believe is to be from the 8 th 9 th centuries CE celebrates the 108 Vaishnava temples in the region and among them talks about Aranmula. There are also details of the temple in the book Thiru Nizhal Malai, believed to be from the era 12-13 centuries CE. This one is written in proto-Tamil, predecessor of modern Tamil and Malayalam, and the rare book was unearthed from north Malabar. There is a flowery description of the region, in this particularly about Ayiroor, a village nearby on the banks of river Pampa, from where the author Govindan seems to have hailed from.
 

This book is a work mainly narrating the ritual by the Velan community, later considered lower caste, but once a priestly people, to remove various doshas of the deity. Arayas, a hill people, in north Malabar still perform the rituals, presumably they once hailed from the south or there were interlinks. A more recent and more popular work called Aranmula Vilasom Hamsa Pattu by Nedumpayil Kochu Krishnan Asan, also gives a graphic illustration of the place, temple and the community life around. Written as told by a Hamsam, Swan, just as poet-saint of Malayalam Ezhuthachan adopts the style of Kilipattu, or bird song, singing this song was believed to cure diseases like Asthma. The work talks about the natural splendors of the area and the river Pampa in its varied hues. The floods in river Pampa when huge uprooted trees from the forest hills upstream come floating, children swimming and playing are all narrated. The rituals of feeding children, cows and the free distribution of paddy and food by rich families are mentioned. There are also mentions in various other Tamil and Malayalam sources about the temple, also in traveler s accounts.

 

Popular Legends

The oft repeated story about Aranmula is however about the temple deity here coming from Nilakkal, upstream of the river Pampa, where some natural calamity drove out the people who shifted to Aranmula. Later the deity, Lord Vishnu, as a boy himself took the trip and was provided with a floating bamboo raft, by members of the Chakka community. And from the six bamboo poles used, from the Malayalam Aru, for six, and Mula, bamboo, the place name Aran-mula came in to being. The deity, came not to Aranmula straight but to a place now called Vilakkumadam, downstream. It was getting dark and here a farmer had hung a lamp, vilakku. Later the deity came to Aranmula escorted by the local family and after having been there at a place Paykanjipara. Many of the rituals commemorating this event are performed to this day and the boat race and its protocols point to this.

The other popular belief is of the idol is one worshipped by the Arjuna, the warrior of Mahabharatha. There are also three other Vaishnava temples here, as the legend goes, called, Trichittat, where the idol worshipped by Yudhishtira was installed, Puliyoor, that of Bhimasena, Thiruvan vandoor, Nakula and Thrikkodithanam, Sahadeva. There are also sub-shrines in the Aranmula temple complex for Balarama, Sastha, Goddess etc. The region is dotted with goddess temples and Kavus, Sacred Groves, belonging to various communities and families. Many of these have linkages to the central temple and deity Thirvaranmulayappan. There are four hills on four sides of the temple, where the dalit Kurava community and the head priests called Oralis, were custodians. These were believed to be the guardian sentinels and in the past belonged to the Saiva stream.

Edapara Malai, Aringottu Malai, Kanakakunnu Malai, Poozhikunnu Malai, four guardian deities on hills around the temple where the priests from the Kurava community were the custodians. With Sakteya rituals these went in to decline, perhaps with pressure on land, new prejudices and general decline in nature worship rituals and the lack of new generations of priests. But these are now being renewed. There was also a Kurathi shrine within the temple where the Kurava women danced to propitiate the deity as recorded. Stones representing the hill gods are still there and the Kurava priests do continue the rudimentary rituals. Perhaps the caste hierarchy and other factors in the interim years did away with these rituals but these points to the prejudice free Hindu community of distant past.

 

Temple as Centre of Community Life

Old timers tell that there was a system when the whole Hindu community in the vicinity assembled at the shrine when the repeated temple bells were heard. This was done to deter enemy attacks, face calamities etc. Since the temple is at a high elevation during floods people assembled here to escape the wrath of the river. The region had priestly families with Vedic traditions, families of reigning warriors, craftsmen and agricultural families who all made a self sustaining unit. The famous Aranmula Kannadi, metal mirror, is a relic of the rich metallurgy traditions from master craftsmen who still live around the temple. The famous snake boats, now used as ornamental vessels, were perhaps originally meant for martial functions and could carry armies when the road transport was scanty. The martial families were all trained and in charge. The lands and paddy fields were all owned by the temple but various people kept as custodians, who over saw the farming. A share of the paddy cultivated was kept at the temple for any eventualities and to feed the poor. The whole region and its life cycles were centred around the temple and its calendar.
 

The tradition of 52 Karas, geographical units, around the temple who partake in the boat race present a picture of the social organization from pre-colonial era. The Kerala tradition of the kings not keeping standing armies but instead depending on the warrior families with Kalaris, mainly tharavadus, for defense purposes are retained in Aranmula albeit as the ritual of the boat race when able bodied men come together in total discipline. The huge boats they keep at each Kara spending huge amounts for their upkeep are cases of an ancient naval power in the region when the native kingdoms of the water land strived for superiority. This remained till the days of colonization when with superior weapons like guns and clever stratagems,also using the caste divisions within people, the glory of the people subsided to a degree. Here once again the culture is awakening with added vigor.