Truprayar Rama Temple
Like the neighboring states in Kerala also the number of temples dedicated to Rama are very few. One of them is the famous Truprayar temple. This temple is about 20 km from the town of Trichur. It is between Kodungallor and Guruvayur.,. The river flowing through this village is called Truprayar Puzha.
It seems once fishermen trying to catch fish in the sea, got 4 statutes. They were not able to identify them and took it to the house of Vaykkal Kaimal. Recognizing the divinity in the statues, as is usual, daiva prasnam was done. They came to know that the statues are that of Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana and Shatrugna. The god ordered them to consecrate Rama in Truprayar and other Gods in near by places. This order of God was followed. Rama was consecrated in Truprayar, Bharatha in Irinjalakuda, Lakshmana in Moozhikulam and Shatrugna in Payamel.
They heard a divine voice tell them that Rama idol has to be consecrated in a place shown by a divine peacock bird. In spite of waiting for long, the bird did not come. So they consecrated the idol in a place chosen by them. Later the divine bird did come and sat in another place. The people constructed a big Balikkal in that place. But the Balikkal started moving on its own. A great Mahatma called Narayanathu Branthan hit a nail and fixed the Balikkal in a place. Even today we can see the hole of the nail in the Balikkal. There is a belief that going round the temple should include that Balikkal also.
The God Rama in this temple has four hands.He holds the wheel, conch, Kodanda bow and Akshamala in his hands. He is surrounded by Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Bhoodevi on both sides. It is believed that it was Vilwamangalam Swamiyar who consecrated Goddess Lakshmi and Bhoodevi in this temple. When he was on a visit to this temple, he saw the Bhoodevi and Sridevi enter the temple for doing Pooja through the western gate, He consecrated them there it self and ordered the western gate should be closed for ever, to have their divine presence always and for ever. There is no temple of Hanuman in this place but it is believed that Hanuman is always present here. Daily beaten rice is offered to him in the Mukha mandapam. In the south of the sanctum sanctorum, there is a temple for Dakshinamurthy., Ganesa and Ayyappa. Gingelly lamp is offered as worship to this Ayyappa on Saturdays. Strangely there is a temple for Chathan(devil) Sami near this temple. People believe that Chathan Sami is the son of Lord Rama.
There is a reference to this temple in one of the ancient works of Malayalam called Kokasandesham. Taking this in to account, it is clear that this temple was very famous even in the fourteenth century.
The three main festivals of this temple are the Ekadasi of Krishna Paksha in the month of Vruschiga(November-December) called Truprayar Ekadasi,, Mageeram of the month of Meenam (March-April) and Arattupuzhapuram.
On the Ekadasi day the God travels our of the temple with 21 elephants and goes to see his son at Chathan Sami Temple. When this procession nears the Avanangadu Shiva temple, it moves silently till it passes the temple. It seems once Lord Rama promised Lord Shiva of Avanangadu that he would give paddy which has been grown within a day and a coconut. Since he was not able to fulfill this promise. Lord Rama prefers Lord Shiva not to know about his passing by this temple. Arattupuzha pooram is held in Arattupuzha with 101 elephants coming from 101 temples. The leader of the group is the Lord of Truprayar.
There is a belief that if we are able to start from this Rama Temple and see the other three temples of his brothers in nearby places before noon, we would get our wishes fulfilled. This is called Nalambalam Kanal. There are special buses starting from Truprayar, in the early morning for this purpose.