Kankol Shiva temple is located at Kankol in Alapadamba village in Kannur district, Kerala. This is an ancient Shiva temple. The aradhana murti in the temple is Dakshari Shiva. It is believed the original pratishta or consecration was performed by Parashurama avatar of Vishnu.
Kankol Shiva Temple Story
As per Brahmanda Purana, the place where the present Kankol Shiva temple is situated was chosen by Kapila Maharshi to perform a yagna. He cleaned and built an ashram here and started preparation for the Agnihotra yagna. But Asuras wanted to stop the Agnihotra yagna planned by Sage Kapila. They started attacking the ashram and the yagna bhumi.
Sage Kapila then requested Parashurama to help him. Parashurama defeated the Asuras and the yagna was completed successfully. It is said that all the gods and goddesses in Hindu pantheon arrived in the place to receive havis from the yagna, and thus making the area holy.
Shiva and Goddess Bhagavathi were pleased with the piety and yagna of Sage Kapila and therefore they appeared here in swayambhu form.
The area remained untouched by humans for several thousand years. It turned into a forest. Later two people who ventured into the forest to collect wood discovered swayambhu Shivling and the temple came into existence.
A kilometer from the present temple one can still see remnants of the ancient yagna place of Sage Kapila. Huge standing boulders and soil that is different from the surroundings can be seen here.
The temple and its compound are considered to be a punyabhumi (holy ground) and therefore people carry a small amount of soil from here during construction of house and shops.
The Upa Devatas worshipped in the temple are Ganapathy, Ayyappan and Bhagavathi.
The most important festival in the temple is Shivratri.
It is believed that Shiva protects the village from any kind of untoward incidents.