Ambalaparambu Mahavishnu Temple, Kerala

Address

Ambalaparambu Mahavishnu Temple, Ambalakkoth road, Ummalathoor, Medical College Rd, PO, Kozhikode, Kerala 673008

Diety

Mahavishnu

Introduction

The temple is situated in the Ambalakkoth at Kovoor desom of Nellikode Village that is situated at the 30th ward of Kozhikode Corporation. The trust members of the temple, P Sreedharan Nair, T M Sukumaran and P K Subhash Chandran detailed about the temple two Mantapas covered with plastic sheets tied at the roof part where they had kept the woods for the renovation purpose Mahavishnu’s Idol was laid down there on a huge plank. But still the temple is ruins. To build the temple needs 5.5crore. It was 4.5 foot long with a 1 foot tall square portion that could be fixed to the plank. This idol of Vishnu that contains an aura seems like it is built in Krishna Sila. IThe temple is in ruins The idol was cut to pieces during invasion and dumped in wellThey was scared pond near the temple.

Puranic Significance

The ruptured idol was a leftover of the attack by Hyder or Tipu. A lot of temples of Kozhikode were demolished in the Jihad waged by father-son duo of Hyder and Tipu. 18 temples of the neighbourhood were demolished and later these unattended temples went down the soil and hence the temple premises and temple lands were taken over by the private people. Sukumaran told that the ruptured idol was found from the sacred well while cleaning it. The well was also destroyed and even used for dumping wastes. There were piles of wastes kept at one side of the temple which were taken out from the temple well. The idol was found even beneath these wastes. Towards the left a small hill which looked like a cleaned up ‘Kaavu’ or sacred grove. There are huge trees at this location and it was here the main sanctum sanctorum of Mahavishnu was present. As a mark a huge shrine was found at the same location. Balikkallu and ancient drainages were found, couldn’t find any walls for the sanctorum. The Mahavishnu temple was facing towards the west. Sub shrines of Durga, Ganapathy and Dhakshina Moorthi were also there. This shows that this was a temple complex. Information is not available about the origin and age of the temple. It is assumed to be more than 3000 years old. As the name, Ambalakkothu explains a temple which is garlanded like a chain of flowers. Hence there should be more temples to this garland of temples.