About Thiruvairanikulam Temple
Temple
Thiruvairanikkulam Mahadeva temple is the most popular Siva Parvathy temple in South India.The temple is situated in Vellarappally near Kalady of Ernakulam district, in the state of Kerala. Kalady is renowned as the birth place of great Adisankara, a Hindu Philosopher who advocated the treatise of Advaitha Vedanta. A remarkable feature of this temple is that the deities of Siva and Parvathy in the temple face in the opposite direction, which is unusual. Another unique feature is that the sanctum of Goddess Parvathy is open only for twelve days in a year.
The chief deity of the temple is Lord Shiva, who sits facing the east while the Goddess Parvathy faces the west. It is believed that Lord Shiva and Parvathy who resides in the temple grant the boon of marriage to their devotees. In front of the sanctum sanctorum is the idol of Lord Nandikeshwara and adjacent to the shrine facing the east is Lord Vigneshwara.
Inside the surrounding wall and outside Nalambalam, in Mithunam Rasi facing the west are the idols of the universal mother, Sathidevi and Goddess Kali who dotes on her devotees.Lord Dharmasastha the Kaliyugavaradan is placed in Kanni rasi and the four armed Lord Vishnu sits in Kumbham Rasi facing east.
There is a certain relation between the history of Akavoor Mana and the temple formation. Akavoor Manaparambu (the land of Akavur Mana) lies in the Airanikulam village. Brahmins of the Mana were regarded as rules during that period. Years later, a conflict erupted in the family and a section of them moved to Vellarapilly village. But the Brahmins often visited Lord Mahadeva, then known as Airanikulathappan and Sree Parvathi. It is during this period that Akavoor Chathan came to the Mana as a dependent.