Place · Shiva temple · India
Ettumanoor
Also known as Ettumanoor Mahadeva, Ettumanoor Mahadeva, Kottayam, Kottayam
The Ettumanoor Mahadeva Shiva temple at Ettumanoor in Kottayam district, Kerala, 12 kilometres from Kottayam — one of the most important temples in Kerala, with Chera-period foundations and continuous Travancore royal patronage. The temple is famous for its 16-century mural paintings on the inner-wall of the gopuram — the Ettumanoor Nataraja painting (one of the finest Kerala murals, showing Shiva's cosmic dance against a red background with vermillion pigment that has not faded in 400 years), the Vishnu-Narasimha-Rama panels, and the Krishna-Lila sequence. The temple's annual Arattu procession on the Thiru-Ulthsavam (February-March) uses seven golden elephants and seven caparisoned deities in a long procession. The temple's gold-plated 7-and-a-half elephants used in Arattu are a GI-tagged ceremonial piece. The temple remains an active pilgrimage.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Kerala cultural and Indian Ocean history
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 9.670, 76.560
Connections (1)
- Site adjacencyBharananganam
Bharananganam sits on the Meenachil river in Kottayam district, in the Christian heartland of the Kerala midlands where churches and temples stand within sight of each other in every village and where the Ettumanoor Shiva temple is a few kilometres away. The pilgrims who come to Alphonsa's tomb include Hindus and Muslims, which is unremarkable here and is a fair description of how Kerala shrines actually work.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Ettumanoor”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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