Ettumanoor Mahadevar Temple : Ezharapponnana

Ettumanoor Mahadevar Temple, Ettumanoor, Kottayam District

Roudra (fierce) and Vatsalya (love) are the two moods of the presiding deity, Lord Mahadeva (Lord Siva) at the Ettumanoor temple. At the entrance of the temple is a kedavilakku (ever burning lamp) believed to have been lighted over 450 years back and ever since fed by the devotees with oil. The ten-day festival commences on February 16. Devotees throng to catch a glimpse of the Ezharapponnana (seven and a half gold elephants, altogether weighing 180 lbs). It is called so, since each of the seven elephants is two-feet high while the last is only half the height. These elephant miniatures in gold were gifted to the temple in 1759 by Karthika Thirunal Maharaja of the erstwhile princely State of Travancore.