Chottanikkara Bhagavati Temple - Kerala

Kerala state of India - God's own country - has a lot of famous temples, such as Guruvayurappan temple and Sabarimala Ayyappa temple. Besides Ayyappa and Guruvayurappan, Bhagavati is one of the deities worshiped mainly across Kerala. You could find Bhagavati in all the important temples of Kerala. Bhagavati temple, located in Chottannikara, near Ernakulam city, is one of Kerala's most famous Bhagavati temples.

The presiding deity is called Bhagavati or Rajarajeswari. The icon is made up of laterite (reddish sand), and the shape is irregular. She has four arms. Bhagavati, in this temple, is worshiped in three different forms - Saraswati in the morning - Bhadrakali in the noon, and Durga in the evening.

The temple's highlight is that the icon is not fixed to the ground; instead, it is mounted on loose sand. Adjacent to the Bhagavati icon, there is an icon of Vishnu. Both the icons together are referred to as Lakshmi Narayana.

The temple also houses a shrine for Shasta and his consorts, Poorna and Pushkala. The shrines of Shiva and Bhadrakali are also found.

People having psychological problems visit this temple, as there is a belief that Bhagavati in this temple can cure mental diseases.

As per the legend, there was a dacoit named Kannappan who brought a cow and wanted to slaughter it. However, the cow escaped from him, and he couldn't chase and catch it. When he returned home, he found his daughter playing with the same cow, and he didn't want to kill it now. After some days, his daughter died, which immensely grieved him. One day, Bhagavati appeared in his dream and revealed that it was she who came to him in the form of a cow. To his surprise, he saw two images in the cowshed the following day. They were the images of Vishnu and Bhagavati. He constructed this temple which eventually grew into a shrine of the magnitude seen today.

Happy travelling.

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