Pazhayannur Bhagavathy Temple is located at Pazhayannur in Thrissur district, Kerala. The 8-day annual Pazhayannur Temple festival concludes with Arattu on Thiruvonam nakshatra day in Meenam month.
The annual festival is note for all important temple festival rituals associated with Bhagavathi and Vishnu temples. The main ritual is the Ezhunnallathu with five caparisoned elephants.
The main deity worshipped in the temple is Vishnu but importance is given to Bhagavathi who is an Upa Devata in the temple.
The Sankalpam of goddess or Bhagavathy in the temple is that Vaishnava Durga. The deity faces east. The moolasthan of Bhagavathi is under a raised platform known as unnialthara in the south side of the temple.
The Upa Devatas worshipped in the temple are Shiva, Ganapathy and Ayyappan.
Flying live roosters and feeding them is an important offering to the deity here.
Pazhayannur Temple History
The temple in the beginning only had a Vishnu murti who was known as Pallipurath Appan. The Goddess in the temple was the Upasana murti of Kochi kings. The deity was the family deity or kudumba paradevata of Perumbadavam Namboothiri who was the founder of Cochin royal family.
Years later a king of Perumbadavam family went to Kashi. At Puranapuram in Kashi, king performed intense meditation and had blessing of Goddess Shakti. He got the Goddess (bhajichu kondu varika) to Pazhayannur and consecrated her at the Thidapalli of the temple. The place got the name Pazhayannur from Puranapuram.
Pazhayannur Temple Niramala Festival
Niramala festival, celebrated every year on the last Friday of the Malayalam month of Thulam (Mid November) is another important festival at Pazhayannur Bhagavathy Temple.
Decorations with more than hundreds of flower garlands, illuminations, elephant procession and traditional temple music performance are the highlights of Niramala Mahotsavam.
On the next day of Niramala, Vettekkaran Kavu (one of the sub deities) Chuttuvilakku is conducted.
Kalamezhuthum Pattu is an important ritual conducted during this festival.