Mridanga Shaileswary Temple Road, Muzhakkunnu, Kerala 670703,India.
Mrudanga Saileswari temple located in Mattannur (very close to Kannur International Airport), in Kannur, holds a very key position in both in Kerala mythology as well as in history.
The idol of Mridanga Saileswari
This temple is one of the most prominent Durga temples in Kerala and most celebrated in the Malabar region (North Kerala). We believe, this is one of the most important 108 Durgalayas (Durga temples) consecrated by Lord Parasurama after the formation of Kerala. As per myth, Parasurama consecrated 108 Shiva, Vishnu and Devi temples across the length and breadth of Kerala, based on the advice of Lord Vishnu as to protect the land.
As Parashurama has killed her own mother Renuka (on the command of his father- Jamadagni), he incurred Maturshapam (Mother’s curse). Though he could revive his mother back to life later, the curse still remained upon him. Lord Vishnu advised him to consecrated 108 Devi temples and do penance in each temple as a way to redeem from the sins of Maturshapam. Accordingly, he walked around the new land he created and reached Kanyakumari where his axe fell (in the process of creation of Kerala). After recovering the axe, he consecrated the first Durga temple at Kanyakumari using his divine powers which invoked Goddess Shakti who appeared in the form of Mahamaya (Goddess of Illusion) and entrapped Parashurama in his humanly illusions and desires. Due to which, he later consecrated all remaining temples as a human. He lost his divine abilities to consecrate idols, so he did hard penance at each temple, so as an idol emerges out automatically from the soil (Swayambhoo) which he worshipped.
When he reached the Ezhimala, the northern mountain ranges near Kannur, it's said that he was attracted to this valley because of a melodious drum beats. This drum beats constantly echoed around the valley. So he did his penance with his mind fully concentrated on the music of drum beats.
Accordingly, in front of his, a strange drum appeared called Mizhavu, a single face drum having a pot-like structure. From the face of the drum, an idol emerged
Mizhavu Instrument, one of the celebrated percussion instruments in Kerala
And this idol was consecrated here as Mridanga Saileswari. The original name was Mizhavu Saileswari, but in the later period the many people got confused between the music from Mizhavu and Mridangam (a popular instrument used in Carnatic Music) and started calling this place as Mridanga Saileswari and the name struck even today.
The mountains around the temple are called Mizhavukunnu (Mountains of Mizhavu) as it resembled much like a Mizhavu. But the unique fact is that, due to the peculiar shape, any drum beats played in this valley, gets echoed similar to the musical rhythms from a Mizhavu or Mridangam. Mizhavu is more ethnic to Kerala, while Mridangam is common to South India, but its beats are almost similar.
Picturesque temple of Mridanga Saileswari, located in a valley surrounded by Muzhukunnu mountain ranges
The Devi was originally worshipped by the tribals of the mountains and hence Nampoothiris used to refer the Goddess as Saileswari (Goddess of Mountain). Its how the name stuck.
Interestingly, in early periods when Nampoothiris started taking over temples and its rituals, they believed this idol is a manifestation of Saraswati, the Goddess of Music and Wisdom. So they worshipped more as Vadyadevatha(Goddess of Music Instruments). The belief of Goddess emerged from a Mizhavu, strengthened this belief.
But in the medieval era, this place came under the control of Kottayam Rajas (there is a Kottayam in North Kerala, near Kannur), which was a sub-branch of Chirakkal Kolathiris, the powerful Kings of North Malabar. Kottayam Thampurans (princes) were adherent worshippers of Durga, especially in form of PORKKALI (Battle Ready Kali) and this region was seeing the rise of a lot of Porkkali temples. When Mrudanga Saileswari temple came under the political authority of Kottayam Kings, they converted the temple concept to Porkkali and started aggressively worshipping the goddess as Kali. While Nampoothiris who does the poojas didn’t adhere to that as no one dares to invoke Kali’s energy in Tantric rites which is too fierce and may backtrack. So Nampoothiri priests continued worshipping as a pacified Devi form, while the Kings assumed they worship the idol as Porkkali.
Due to which, even today people believe the goddess in this temple is Porkkali while the worship cult is more of pacified Devi, specifically to Saraswati styled Durga.
This temple became iconic for two major reasons
Original Home of Kathakali
Historically Mrudaga Saileswari temple is associated as Birthplace of modern Kathakali theatre. While the origins of Kathakali is often associated with Kottarakkara in South Kerala, it was in this temple, Kathakali in its modern form took its birth.
There is an interesting story behind it. In 1654, the scholarly Kozhikode’s Zamorin- Manaveda Raja who was an adherent devotee of Lord Krishna of Guruvayur composed and designed a new art-form called Krishnanattam(Dance of Krishna) based on the stories of Lord Krishna from the work- Krishnagiti. This highly stylized dance-drama was dedicated to Lord of Guruvayur temple and became a ritual offering exclusive for that temple. As there was an intense cold war going between Kozhikode’s Zamorin and Venad Rulers (South Kerala), Manaveda decided to commission a demo team of Krishnanattam to visit the Venad court and showcase the cultural and artistic superiority of Malabar. The entire princes and King of Venad got completely awestruck with the sophistication and quality of Krishnanattam play. This made Kottarakkara Thampuran (vassal king of Kottarakkara, a place close to Kollam, the capital of Venad) who too was an art scholar and dancer, to compose an art form much similar to Krishnanattam as a tit-for-tat reply to Zamorin. This resulted in the development of a dance form called Ramanattam (the Dance of Rama) based on stories from Ramayana. Though it resembled much to Krishnanattam, Ramanattam was less sophisticated with simpler body movements, hand gestures and footwork and completely based in Malayalam, unlike the Sanskritized Krishnanattam.
By the orders of Venad King, Ramanattam was heavily patronized by the state and regularly performed in almost all temples in South Kerala, thus became more popular among dance connoisseurs unlike Krishnanattam which was (and still is) performed only inside the temple of Guruvayur as its own exclusive ritual.
In one of the visits to South Kerala, Kottayam Thampuran happened to see Ramanattam and he felt the show has serious quality deficits especially when he compared with Krishnanattam. He felt it's not much stylized enough for a superior art-form. Thus he took Ramanattam to his court in Kannur and redesigned the art-form by adding more complex eye-movements, rigid body movements, focused more on acting areas (as it was a dance play and increased its overall ornamental styles. One notable difference he brought was he extended other stories from Purnas rather limiting to just stories from Ramayana.
Kottayam Thampuran was a well known literary figure then. He was a reputed poet, a singer, composer etc. He designed 4 new stories in form of dance-plays (Atta-kathas)- Bakavadham (Bhima’s killing of Baka Asura), Kirmeeravadham(The Slaying of Kirmeera), Kalyana saugandhikam (Bhima’s hunt for the divine Saugndhika Flower) and Nivathakayacha kalakeyavadham (The Slaying of Kalakeya), which became the 4 iconic original Kathakali plays and performed this redesigned art-form for the first time in front of their family deity- Mrudanga Saileswari. It was right in front of her, Kottayam Thampuran officially renamed Ramanattam into Kathakali (meaning Story-Play)
The Dhyana Mantram used prior to every Kathakali play across Kerala is actually an initiation prayer to Devi Mridanga Saileswari. So as the lady characterization in Kathakali is believed to be shown by the Goddess herself
Prior to the start of the inaugural play, he composed and recited a 4 line Slokha in praise of their family deity and it became the most iconic Dhyana Mantram (Prayer Phrase) which now regularly used as opening phrases for any Kathakali drama. This Dhyana Mantram specifically praises Mrudanga Saileswari in her form as Porkkali (which one hears in the above video) and it became a standard slokha for any Kathakali performance even today. This is the only Sanskrit Slokha used in Kathakali as rest the entire plays are normally in Manipravalam (Sanskritized Malayalam) or in ordinary Malayalam.
മാതംഗാനന മബ്ജവാസരമണിംഗോവിന്ദ മാദ്യം ഗുരുംവ്യാസം പാണിനി ഗര്ഗ്ഗ നാരദകണാംദാദ്വാന് മുനീന്ദ്രാന് ബുധാന്ദുര്ഗ്ഗാംഞ്ചാപി മൃദംഗശൈലനിലയാംശ്രീപോര്ക്കലീമിഷ്ടദാംഭക്ത്യാനിത്യമുപാസമഹെ സപദി ന:കുര്വ്വന്ത്വമീ മംഗളം
maathamgaanana abjavaasaramaNeemgOvindamaadyam guroomvyaasam paanini garganaaradakaNaa-daadyaan muneendraan budhaandurgaam chaap mr^damgaSailanilayaamSreepOrkkaleemishTadaambhakthyaa nithyamupaasmahEsapadinaHkurvvanthvamee mamgaLam
Mridanga Saileswari Kshethram History
Its believed, the Lady character design as one sees in the Kathakali was designed by Kottayam Thampuran after being revealed to him by the Goddess in the form a reflection in the temple pond.
Due to this unique history, often Mrudanga Saileswari temple is accredited as Birthplace of Kathakali.
Family temple of Pazhassi Raja
Malayalees know this temple more as the family deity of the celebrated ruler- Veera Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja. As Kerala Varma was a member of the Kottayam Dynasty, Mrudanga Saileswari happened to his family goddess and he had a strong devotion to her.
Pazhassi Raja’s statue placed in front of the temple entrance
He took his famous vow to oust British from Malabar in front of this idol and he used to pray for victory for every single battle against Britishers except for the last one. And he won in all the battles except for the last one. As he became too invincible for Britishers to defeat (the only ruler who defeated Sir Arthur Wellesley who defeated Napoleon and Tipu Sultan), this belief in the power of the deity increased so rapidly among Malayalees of that era. The temple even after Pazhassi’s death was associated with valorous warriors who were mostly Nair rebels who took their vows to defeat the British and ended up as suicide squad (Chavers).
Due to this unique past, this temple is heavily associated with Chivalry of those warriors who laid down their lives in their fight against colonial rule. Even today, one can spot a large statue of Pazhassi Raja in front of the temple, to remind the historic importance of this temple in our freedom struggle.
Pazhassi Raja’s bhakti towards the goddess was legendary that he used to title himself as Sree Porkkalidasan (much like the way Travancore Kings use to style themselves as Sree Padmanabhadasan) which means Servant of Porkkali.
Post-release of the movie- Pazhassi Raja in Malayalam, there has been a renewed interest among Malayalees to identify and visit places associated with Pazhassi’s heroic fight against British and thus Mrudaga Saileswari temple became more popular.
Scene from Pazhassi Raja Movie that highlights Pazhassi Raja’s bhakti towards Goddess Mridanga Saileswari. The song is the same Dhyana Slokham composed by Kottayam Thampuran used before Kathakali
The temple is located in a small village in Kannur district, it wasn’t a busy temple at all, patronized only by locals living in and around the Mattannur area.
But a few years back, former DGP of Kerala- Alexander Jacob IPS recollected few experiences of him associated with the temple in a television show. He narrated that the idol of this temple was stolen 3 times and in each occasion, the robbers were unable to flee with the idol for a longer distance. The moment they took the idol from its place, they developed signs of hallucinations, unable to comprehend the directions and even lost control of their own body action. Due to these circumstances, they threw the idol away and escaped (but caught later by police). In these occasions, Jacob Alexander was a high ranking police officer in Kannur area, so he came to knew about these unusual incidents happening with the temple.
He was also instrumental in assisting former Chief Minister of Kerala- K Karunakaran who believed in the power of this deity to get the temple nationalized and declare it as a National Monument (under Archaeological Survey of India) considering its historical and religious significance. Today this temple is under Malabar Devaswom Administration.
Karunakaran became a devotee of this temple when he offered prayers at this temple when Congress got split in Kerala in the 1970s and he lost his Home-Ministership. It's said, after his prayers at the temple, within a week, the splinter group (lead by AK Antony) returned back to Congress. After this incident, many politicians started believing in the power of the deity.
After DGP Alexander Jacob made these revelations, the temple became more popular among others and currently, it's one of the busiest temples in North Kerala.
Interestingly is popular among Communists of Kannur who regularly visit and make prayers at the shrine. The recent incident was that of EP Jayarajan who visited and offered his prayers there, shortly before he was inducted into State Cabinet as Industries Minister, which reflects the popular sentiments among most of the public in North Kerala that the Devi in the temple is powerful.
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SOURCE :- QUORA
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