The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : A unique place of pilgrimage

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Thursday, Jul 15, 2010
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Kerala - Kochi

A unique place of pilgrimage

Special Correspondent

TEMPLE for PILGRIMs: Sree Bharatha Swamy temple, Amanakara, in Kottayam district.

KOCHI: Come Karkitakam, it is time for spiritual sojourns and pilgrimages. The “Nalambala Darsanam” has caught popular imagination and each year, the number of devotees who visit the legendary temples of Sreerama, Lakshmana, Bharatha and Sathrughna is increasing.

However, there is a unique panchayat in Kottayam district – Ramapuram – where the four temples are located with a radius of 6 km which makes it the ideal choice for the elderly and those who find travelling a tiresome experience.

Ramapuram is equidistant from Kochi and Kottayam and the journey takes less than 90 minutes from wither of these places, say those associated with these temples.

The Ramapuram Sreerama temple is said to be more than 1,000 years old. The village got its very name “Ramapuram” after this temple came into existence, together with those for the other brothers of Sreerama, namely Lakshmana, Bharatha, and Sathrughna, in the same grama panchayat.

Legend has it that after a prosperous rule of Ayodhya, Sreerama left for the South and settled for meditation by the side of a gurgling canal sandwiched between paddy fields in the backdrop of dense forests. Soon, his siblings also followed him and settled at Koodapulam, Amanakara and Methiri, within a short distance from Ramapuram. Gradually, temples came up at all these places.

Old timers in the region say that Lord Vishnu's incarnations in the Threthayuga are supposed to be the most important among the avatars of the Lord. The darshan of the four Lords, Sreerama, Lakshmana, Bharatha and Sathrughna, on the same day is called “Nalambalam Darsanam”. It is the only place of worship or temple complex in the country where the four deities exist in a single village within a radius of 6 km.

These temples and their importance were highlighted in the temple survey of 1997 conducted by the Central government.

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