Place · naga serpent temple · India
Nagaraja and Nagayakshi, Alappuzha
Also known as Alappuzha, Mannarasala Nagaraja, Nagaraja and Nagayakshi
The Mannarasala Sree Nagaraja Temple at Harippad in Alappuzha district, Kerala — India's foremost naga (snake) worship shrine, with over 30,000 free-standing stone naga sculptures scattered across the temple's 16-acre forest grounds. The temple deity is Nagaraja (serpent king) worshipped alongside Nagayakshi (serpent queen). The temple is presided over by a hereditary priestess from the Illam Brahmin family — one of only three Kerala temples with a female chief priest — reflecting the pre-Vedic serpent-worship substrate of Kerala Hinduism. The annual Mannarasala Ayilyam festival in October-November draws over 100,000 pilgrims who make serpent-shaped offerings for fertility and ancestral curses. The current structure is 10-11th century Chera-period. The temple is managed by the Mannarasala Devaswom.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 9.247, 76.489
Connections (1)
- Site withinAlappuzha
Nagaraja and Nagayakshi, Alappuzha sits inside Alappuzha and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Alappuzha”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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