Tavanur Brahma Temple
Tavanur Brahma Temple
Tavanur Brahma Temple and also as Tavanur Cheru Thirunavaya Brahma temple is located at Tavanur in Malappuram district, Kerala.The temple is located on the northern bank of Bharathapuzha -the longest river in Kerala.
It is believed that Navagrahas, Pancha Bhootas and Nakshatras offer prayers to Brahma here.
Tavanur has three mahakshetras– one each to Krishna, Brahma and Shiva. The Brahma and Shiva temples are more than 1300 years old. All these three temples are built on the southern bank of Bharatapuzha river. There is a huge temple dedicated to Vishnu (contemporaneous to latter two temples) on the northern bank of the river – opposite to the Shiva temple.
The main deity Brahma worshipped in temple is depicted as sitting on a lotus appearing from navel of Vishnu. The four-faced Brahma faces east in a circular sanctum sanctorum – Vatta Sreekovil. The unique vigraha or bimbam has Shiva, Lakshmi, Parvati, Saraswati, Devas, Bhootas, Pancha Bhootas, Navagrahas, Nagas, Rashis, Saptamatrikas, Tithi, Ritus and Panchedriyas carved on the base.
It is believed that Chaitanyam of Brahma has been residing the shrine from the beginning of Satya Yuga just after Mahapralaya.
The Brahma Temple here was consecrated by Lord Parashurama, who brought and settled the Brahmins here. Parashurama himself is considered to be a “Brahma-Kshatriya”, or one who perfectly balances the duties of both Brahmana and Kshatriya. For this reason, Brahmadeva is said to be Parashurama’s guru, and having executed a great yajna here in Tavanur, Parashurama dedicated a temple to his guru, Lord Brahma.
After many years the temple was desecrated by Tipu, the temple remained in a dilapidated state till last decade. Locals claim that they suffered from sudden outbursts of diseases every few years – which was attributed to the anger of Lord Brahma whose temple was left in a dilapidated state.
About a decade ago, locals started rebuilding the temple and a pujari has been appointed to do nitya puja to Brahma. They claim that there has been no such outbreak of diseases since then.
