Adoor Mahalingeshwara Temple is located at Delampadi village in Kasaragod District. The annual festival in the temple is known as Meena Sankrama Utsavam. It is observed from 27th day of Kumbham month for 5 days.
It is believed that Arjuna received Pashupatastra in this temple.
Adoor Mahalingeshwara Temple - Story
During the Dvapara Yuga, while the Pandavas were living in exile in the forest, Bhagavan Sri Krishna instructed Arjuna to seek the blessings of Parameshwara (Shiva) through penance. Following Bhagavan Sri Krishna’s command, Arjuna chose the beautiful and dense forest known as Kapardikanam as the place for his penance. This dense forest stretched across the area to the south of Adoor Temple. This region is considered to be the original site (Moolasthana) of the temple. Kapardikanam is known today as Kavadikkanam.
In order to test the power of Arjuna’s penance, Paramashiva (Mahadeva Shiva) arrived at a place called Kundamkuzhi together with Goddess Parvati. From there, they began their journey and reached a place called Vedadukkam. There, Mahadev and Goddess Parvati assumed the forms of a male hunter and a female hunter (Vedan and Vedathi) and began hunting.
Meanwhile, Mahadev came to know that a demon named Shapagrasthamukhan, who had been afflicted by a curse, was wandering around the area in the form of a wild boar. In order to liberate the demon from the curse, Shiva shot an arrow at the boar at a place called Paniyadukka. Thus, Shapagrasthamukhan was released from the curse. This area later came to be known as Bandadukka.
The boar, wounded by the arrow and suffering from the pain, fled from the forest and entered Kavadikkanam, where Arjuna was performing his penance, thereby disturbing his meditation. Angered by this, Arjuna shot an arrow at the boar, killed it, and threw it aside.
On learning about this, the hunter confronted Arjuna and argued with him for killing the boar. The two then engaged in a physical struggle and wrestling match. The place where Arjuna fought with Shiva, who had assumed the form of a hunter (Kirata), later came to be known as Adoor. Arjuna was unable to defeat the hunter either in fist fighting or in wrestling.
For Arjuna, who had never experienced defeat until then, this was a great humiliation. Realizing his mistake, Arjuna immediately gathered sand from a nearby pond and, with great devotion and reverence, fashioned a Shivling from it. He performed an abhishekam with the water from the pond and made a garland of Koovalam (Bilva) leaves, which he placed on the Shiva Lingam.
However, the water and the Koovalam garland disappeared from the Shivling and appeared on the body of the hunter. Seeing this, Arjuna realized that the hunter was none other than Paramashiva Himself. He immediately ran to Him, fell at His feet, and begged for forgiveness.
Pleased with Arjuna’s pure and sincere devotion, Paramashiva appeared in His peaceful form together with Goddess Parvati. Lord Shiva then blessed Arjuna by giving him the Pashupatastra, while Goddess Parvati gave him the Anjanastra.
This story can be seen carved on the Balikkallu (sacrificial stone) at the temple.
Later, a tribal person discovered the Shiva Lingam created by Arjuna and informed members of the Brahmin community about it. They subsequently built a temple at that location. It is believed that the very same Shiva Lingam is still enshrined in the temple today.
The Tantris (chief temple priests) perform the abhishekam of the deity using water drawn from Arjuna Theertham at Moolakkuzhi, which is believed to have been created by Arjuna.
The abhishekam is not performed to the main deity in the shrine who is known as Mahalingeshwara. It is performed on another vigraha. The sanctum sanctorum here is three tiered and is known as gaja prishta sreekovil.
Story Of Temple Festival
The main festival of the temple is Makara Samkranti. Once every twelve years, there was a custom where the temple tantris (chief priests) observed a fast, journeyed to Kavadikkana—the root shrine (moolasthanam) of the temple—and brought back the divine presence (Devi Chaitanya) to perform the Brahmakalashabhishekam. However, this tradition was interrupted later on.
There is a story about this. Around 400 years ago, a temple priest who traveled to Kavadikkana in this manner accidentally forgot his water vessel (kaipaathram) at the root shrine while returning. Since only temple priests were permitted to enter the sacred space of Kavadikkana, and because the priest took a long time to return, the others walked back to the temple without him.
For an entire year, there was no news of the priest. After a year, he returned to the temple. The divine command was that he should not reveal to anyone what he had witnessed during that year, and he initially obeyed. However, when his wife insisted on knowing, the priest revealed that he had seen Parvati and Parameshwara at the root shrine, and that a single moment spent with them felt like a whole year here. Immediately after saying this, the priest passed away. Following this incident, the Brahmakalashabhishekam was no longer performed.
However, years later, when an Ashtamangala Prashnam (astrological ritual) was conducted, it revealed that it was the divine will to resume the Kavadikkana pilgrimage. Thus, in 2013, the Brahmakalashabhishekam was performed at the temple grandly. During the festival, devotees stayed at the temple premises itself, filling the atmosphere with devotion by constantly chanting hymns in praise of Lord Shiva.
Vishnu, Ganapati, Rakteshwari, Kinnimani are the subsidiary deities.
Three time puja is held in the shrine and the main offering is Kadalipazham.
Rudrabhishekam is very important in the temple.