Palpayasam, sweet prepared using milk, sugar, and rice, is the most important offering at the famous Ambalapuzha Sree Krishna Temple in Alappuzha District in Kerala. There two versions of history of the Ambalapuzha Paal Payasam. On story is associated with the game of chess.
Story Ambalapuzha Palpayasam And Chess
The king of Chemakasherri was a great fan of chess and a brilliant player. He once challenged the people to defeat him in chess. A poor Brahmin, whom the people have never seen in the area, took up the challenge.
But the Brahmin put a condition that if the king was defeated then he should give rice to him. The king has to keep one rice grain on the first square and then double it in the remaining each 63 squares in the chess board.
The king did not realize as to what he was really staking. It was impossible for any king to give that amount of rice. The total rice from 64 squares would add up to 9 million trillion rice grains.
The king accepted the condition set forth by the Brahmin. The king was defeated in the game and had to give the rice to the Brahmin. The king got the entire rice in his kingdom but still he found it impossible to give the rice as per the condition.
The king of Chemakasherri did not know how to fulfill the stake. Soon the Brahmin dropped his form and in his place appeared Bhagavan Sri Krishna. King asked for his forgiveness. Sri Krishna told the king that he can settle the stake to him by preparing Palpayasam daily.
History Of Ambalapuzha Palpayasam And Wily Minister
The king once took rice as loan for military needs from a Tamil Brahmin residing at Anambral. The king was unable to settle the debt in time. The principle and interest of the rice grew and turned out to be 36,000 para.
One day when the king came to have darshan at Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple, he was stopped by the Brahmin, who told that the king should first settle his debt before entering the temple. The king who ruled as per Dharma did not enter the temple.
A wily minister of the king soon got the rice need to settle the debt. He put all the rice in the courtyard of Ambalapuzha Sree Krishna Temple and told the Brahmin that all the rice should be removed before the noon puja on the day. The minister made sure that no labor would help the Brahmin. The Brahmin found in difficult to remove the rice in the stipulated time. He donated all the rice to the temple and told to offer daily Paal Payasam to Sri Krishna using the interest from the rice.
Ambalapuzha Palpayasam Facts
It takes around 6 hours to prepare the payasam.
The cooking starts at 6:00 AM daily.
First water is boiled in a big vessel (varpu) for around an hour. Milk is poured into the boiling water. The milk is slowly cooked till all the water disappears. When the water has completely disappeared rice is added to it and cooked. When the rice is cooked sugar is added to it.
Daily Ambalapuzha Palpayasam is prepared using 71 liter milk, 284 liter water, 9 kilo rice and 15.84 liter sugar.