Chottanikkara Bhagavathy Temple

Deity

Rajarajeswari as Saraswathi at dawn, Lakshmi at noon and Durga at dusk, with Keezhkkavu Bhagavathy

Where

Ernakulam, Kerala · 9.94N 76.39E

Usual hours

4 am – 12 pm, 4 pm – 8.30 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?

Grahas

Rahu Chandran

Visited for

The temple people bring the mentally ill and the possessed to; the Guruthi pooja at the Keezhkkavu shrine at night is what they come for. Makam Thozhal in Kumbham is its great day.

There are two shrines and they are worshipped differently. The Devi of the Melkkavu, the upper temple, is dressed as Saraswathi in white in the morning, Lakshmi in red at midday and Durga in blue in the evening, and people time their visit by which they have come for.

The Keezhkkavu, lower down, holds Bhadrakali. This is where families bring those believed to be possessed or mentally disturbed, and where the Guruthi pooja is done at night.

A tree beside the Keezhkkavu shrine is studded with iron nails, driven in when a spirit is held to have been sent away. It is the thing visitors remember, and it is worth knowing before going that the evening at this temple is not a quiet one.

Makam Thozhal in Kumbham is the great day, when the Devi is decorated as Mahalakshmi and the crowd fills the whole hillside.

The Guruthi pooja is performed at the Keezhkkavu on most nights. Navaratri, Vishu and the Fridays of the Malayalam months bring the largest ordinary crowds.

Also called

Chottanikkara Bhagavathy Temple, Melkkavu and Keezhkkavu

Reaching it

Chottanikkara is about 20 km south-east of Kochi in Ernakulam district. Ernakulam Junction is the nearest railway station, and buses run from Vytilla and Tripunithura.

• Thrikkakara Vamanamoorthy Temple 12.9 km · Vaishnava
• Vaikom Mahadeva Temple 21.1 km · Saiva
• Ettumanoor Mahadeva Temple 34.8 km · Saiva
• Kodungallur Bhagavathy Temple 38.4 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Panachikkadu Saraswathy Temple 48.8 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Ambalappuzha Sree Krishna Temple 62.4 km · Vaishnava

Been to this temple? The things that change — whether the hours on this page were right, whether the sannidhi was open, how long the queue was on a Saturday — are exactly what no printed source keeps current, and what the next person travelling here needs.

• Were the hours right when you went?
• Is anything on this page wrong or out of date?
• A photograph of the gopuram, the tank, or the notice board

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