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Kalavamkodam Saktiswaram – Ardhanarishvara Temple – Vayalar - History - Festival

Kalavamkodam Saktiswaram – Ardhanarishvara temple is located at Vayalar in Alappuzha district, Kerala. The pratishta in the temple is unique – om shanti in a mirror. The malayalam om also has a spelling error. The shrine was consecrated by Sri Narayana Guru.

The 10-day annual festival in the temple is observed in Kumbha Masam and it coincides with the Mahashivratri festival.

As per local history, the shrine was built to consecrate Shiva as Ardhanarishvara. But when it was time for pratishta a group of people asked Sri Narayana Guru not to perform murti pratishtha. Then Guru asked to bring a mirror and asked to write om shanti by removing silica. But the person who was scrapping silica made an error. Her wrote om (ഓം) without the ‘a’ (ഒം)  sound. Sri Narayana Guru similingly said that it was also correct and installed it in the temple. Thus the mirror in the temple now has ഒം ശാന്തി .

The pratishta in the temple was performed on kollavarsham 1102 Edavam 31 (Tuesday, June 14, 1927 CE)