A Traeller's Diary - Pullikkara, Bekal, Trikkanad, Palakkunnu, Kasaragod, Anantapura, Mujungavu & Madhur

We woke up at 6:30 AM and vacated our room in the tourist guest house in Kanhangad at 7:30 AM. We would have to catch our train to Coimbatore (West Coast Express) at 11:00 PM on that night from Kasaragod. In the meantime, we had a list of temples to cover between Kanhangad and Kasaragod. 

The first temple we wanted to visit was the Bhadrakali temple at Pullikara. As it is just 8 kms away from Kanhangad, We didn`t want to wait for buses. We hired an auto and reached the temple in 15 minutes. 

Pullikkara

The temple is not as big as we expected. Though the main gate was open, the main temple was closed. We were not sure why the temple was not open even at 7:45 AM. There was no priest and in fact, there was nobody around who could give us information. However, as the doors of the temple were made of grills, we could see the Goddess. 

There are small temples in the same complex for Ganesha, Shiva, Murugan and other deities. These temples were also closed and we had a similar darshan of these deities as well. We came out in 15 minutes with utter disappointment and reached Kanhangad in the same auto. 

We boarded a bus and reached Bekal in 20 minutes. The fort is just 500 meters away from the highway (where the bus stopped), however, as we were not aware how far the fort was, we hired an auto and reached the fort in less than 2 minutes. 

Bekal

The fort in Bekal is situated on a small rock on the shores of the Arabian Sea. We entered the fort after taking the entrance tickets. There is a temple named as Mukhya Prana Temple immediately after the entrance. We went in and understood that it was dedicated to Lord Hanuman (till then, we were not aware that Mukhya Prana was one of the 1008 names of Hanuman).

The fort is spread in acres of land and is huge in size. However, some parts of the fort were damaged and only the compound wall and some other constructions remained now. It is a visual feast to see the fort and the sea together. I suggest you to watch the song Tuhi re.... Tuhi re.... in Mani Ratnam's film Bombay (shot on Aravind Swamy and Manisha Koirala) to understand and enjoy the beauty of this fort.

`

It took more than one hour for us to walk around the entire fort. We came out unwillingly as we had to cover other temples as well. We drank coconut water in a small shop opposite to the fort. When we told the shopkeeper that we wanted to visit the temples at Trikkanad and Pallikannu, she suggested us to hire an auto (instead of waiting for bus) as these places were not far away. We hired an auto and reached Trikkanad in less than 10 minutes (it is just 3 kms from there). 

Trikkanad 

The temple in Trikkanad is located exactly opposite to the Arabian Sea (temple facing the sea). The highway from Kochi to Mumbai separates the temple from the sea. It is one of the rarest temples that have the West facing. There are a few places in South India that are called Dakshin Kashi and Trikkanad is one among them. 

The shrine of the temple was believed to be consecrated by Kanva Maharshi. The temple is also famous for the rituals performed for the well-being of the souls of the dead. The devotees will have a holy dip in the Arabian Sea after performing the rituals here. 

The temple was crowded as around two thousand devotees were there. We stood in the queue for 15 minutes for darshan. We came out at around 10:00 AM after being in the temple for more than half an hour. The same auto driver then dropped us in front of the Bhagavathi temple at Palakkunnu (it is just 2 kms from there). 

Palakkunnu

This temple is located on the highway that connects Kasaragod with Kanhangad. It is just 100 meters away from the  Kottikulam railway station. Though there are so many Bhagavathi temples in Kerala, this temple is special as Bhagavathi is worshiped in two forms here., Mootha Bhagavathi (Durga) and Elaya Bhagavathi (Saraswathi). There are small temples for other deities also. We had a nice darshan of all the deities and we were in the temple for about twenty minutes. 

The priest of the temple told us about a Durga temple which is just 200 meters away from there. We had to cross the railway track near the railway station and go to the other side. This temple is not so big. 

Though this temple is dedicated to Durga, there is a Shiva temple also in the same premises. Here, Shiva is more important than Durga. We returned in less than 15 minutes after having the darshan of both the deities.

We came back and boarded our bus to Kasaragod exactly in front of the Bhagavathi temple (Palakkunnu). We reached Kasaragod in 20 minutes. The bus stopped in the old bus stand which is located just 50 meters away from the famous Mallikarjuna temple.

Kasaragod

The temple is on the banks of the river Kumbala. Lord Shiva was adorned by Arjuna (one of the Pandavas), hence, is worshipped as Mallikarjuna. This temple was renovated by the Ikkeri Kings in the 17th century. 

The temple was still open as it was a special day and there were thousands of people gathered there. The songs on Shiva were being played with huge mike sets. Though there were so many people around, we were able to have our darshan in 5 minutes. It looks the crowed gathered there from the morning and they had already had their darshan. 

We then visited the other temples for Ganapathi, Ayyappa and Durga existing in the same premises. After the darshan, we started to go out. As everybody was waiting there and we were the only ones going out, one of the temple staff asked for the reason. We said we had our darshan and, hence, were going out. He said that lunch would shortly be served to all the devotees and asked us to taste it as it's considered as Mahaprasadam. We decided to stay back and waited there for some time. To our utmost surprise, the songs from the famous Telugu movie Shankarabharanam were also played along with other Malayalam songs. Though we waited for more than half an hour, we didn`t feel bored as we were enjoying Telugu songs on Kerala soil.

The lunch was served in buffet system as it would not be possible to make thousands of people sit and serve them in that limited area. The volunteers helped us collect our food and it had rice, sweet, curry, sambar and curd. 

After having our lunch, we went back to the same bus stand. Our plan was to visit Ananthapura and Mathur in the evening before coming back to Kasaragod to board our train. When I inquired how to go to Ananthapura from there, someone told me to go to Kumbla which is 12 kms away and from there Ananthapura is just 5 kms. 

We boarded a bus and reached Kumbla in 25 minutes. There we boarded another bus and got down on the highway at a place called Naikap in 10 minutes. From here, Ananthapura temple is just one kilometer away. Our plan was to see the temple in Ananthapura and then to go to Madhur. However, after getting down there, I came to know about another temple in a small village (Mujungavu), exactly in the opposite direction to Ananthapura. So we wanted to go to that village also after our visit to Ananthapura.

Ananthapura 

Ananthapura is a small village in the Northern part of Kerala and is famous because of the lake temple. It is the only lake temple in Kerala. It is also the second Ananthapadmanabha temple in Kerala (first being the temple in Thiruvananthapuram which is on the Southern part). We hired an auto from Naikap and reached the temple at 2:30 PM, but, the temple was closed then. The auto driver gave his mobile number and asked me to call him if we wouldn`t find a vehicle after our darshan.

As the temple is located in the middle of a lake, the weather was so pleasant though it was very hot and humid out there. The priest opened the temple at 4:30 PM and we waited for around 2 hours by then. The main shrine in the temple is in standing pose, unlike the one in Thiruvananthapuram. 

After our darshan, the priest took me to a corner of the lake and there is a cave there. It is a belief that that cave leads to the other Ananthapadmanabha swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. At the beginning of the cave, was a crocodile. The priest said that the name of the crocodile is Babita. 

This crocodile is considered to be the custodian of the temple and it eats only vegetarian food. There was rice and fruits around Babita (May be, it is the only vegetarian crocodile in the entire world). The priest took me very close to the crocodile and we both stood just two feet away from Babita. He said Babita is so soft in nature and doesn't harm anybody though people take holy bath in the tank everyday. It is also a belief that there has always been a crocodile in the tank since ancient times. The moment one dies, another one appears. 

He told me to visit the temple dedicated to Lord Vinayaka which is located on the other side of the lake. We took one parikrama of the lake and visited that temple as well. We came out and noticed that there was no vehicle around. I called the auto driver and he came in 10 minutes. We crossed Naikap bus stop and went to Mujungavu.  

Mujungavu

Mujungavu village is just 1.5 kms away from Naikap bus stop and is even smaller than Ananthapura. The temple is dedicated to Lord Krishna who is worshipped as Partha Sarathi here. After reaching the temple we noticed that there was no mode of transport available. So, we asked the driver to stay there for 10 minutes and went in.

The temple looked as it was recently renovated. It was not in the normal traditional Kerala style from outside. It looked it was opened just then. The priest was chanting slokas and we stood in front of the Lord for 5 minutes.

We came out well within ten minutes as we had a quick darshan. 
Our last visit for the day was Madhur. We requested the auto driver to take us to the temple at Madhur as it's hardly 10 kms from there, but he refused as he had other commitments. He dropped us at the same bus stop in Naikap in 5 minutes. As there was no direct bus to Madhur, we boarded a bus and reached a junction called Sithangoli, which is just 3 kms from there. 

We crossed the road in Sithangoli and boarded another bus which was ready to leave for Kasaragod (from a different direction). It wouldn`t go to Madhur, but would go to a place called Uliyathadka (which is also a junction) from where Madhur was just one kilometer away. We got down at Uliyathadka which is 6 kms from Sithangoli. We again hired an auto and reached the temple in Madhur in less than 5 minutes. We had our evening tea in a small hotel in the temple street. 

Madhur

The temple in Madhur is very big in size and is spread in acres. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva who is worshipped as Sri Madanteswara here. However, there is a Ganesha shrine inside the temple who is said to be growing day by day. The temple became famous due to this Ganesha who is worshipped as Sidhi Vinayaka. 

The priest told us that Tipu Sultan invaded some parts of Kerala and demolished a few temples. He wanted to destroy Madhur temple also, however, after drinking the water from the well of this temple, he changed his mind and left the temple without doing any harm to it. But to satisfy his soldiers, he made a cut with his sword on the wall symbolizing his attack. The scar on the wall is visible even now.

It took some time for us to go around and visit the main temple and all the other temples in the same complex. We came out at around 7:30 PM. There are plenty of buses from Madhur to Kasaragod, which is just 8 kms away, and they stop exactly in front of the temple. We boarded a bus and reached Kasaragod in less than 20 minutes. This time, the bus stopped in the new bus stand. From there, we reached the railway station at around 8:00 PM by auto. We had our dinner in the railway canteen which is on the first platform as I couldn`t see any decent restaurant around the railway station. We had a long wait of about three hours before we boarded the train (West Coast Express) at 11:00 PM to leave for Coimbattore.