There are so may miracles associated with the Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple in Kerala. One among them is the story of Manjulaal or the peepal tree in the temple premises.
A poor, young girl Manjula would regularly string a garland for Guruvayurappan. One day she accompanied her mother somewhere far and was late to reach the temple. She rushed there only to find it closed.
Seeing her in tears Poonthanam Namboothiri, the author of famous Jnanappana, gently advised her to offer the garland at the peepal tree at the far end of the eastern entrance of the temple. Manjula did so fervently praying that Sri Krishna should accept her garland.
The next morning the priest found that he was unable to remove one of the previous day’s garlands from the murti of Bhagavan Sri Krishna in the sanctum sanctorum of Guruvayoor temple no matter how hard he tried. He finally came out of the sanctum to seek advice.
Poonthanam told him that it was Manjula’s garland and that it would come off if he tried with reverence. And so it did. The peepal tree that stands at this spot has been commemorated as the Manjulaal (Aal is peepal in Malayalam).