My name is Sreeknath and I am 23 years old. I hail from the rich wetlands known as Upper Kuttanaadu, in Kottayam district, Kerala. People of Kerala call us Tamil Brahmins. History tells 13th century Brahmin migrations to Kerala from Tirunelveli and Thanjaoor districts. But why Iyyers migrated and not Iyyengars, has not been subject to investigation. I did my M. Sc from Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi in applied chemistry and now doing Ph.D in Inorganic Chemistry in the same institution.

        In my early collage days I got interested in Vaishnavism through the articles in The Hindu daily, the more I read I was keen in knowing more about the Alwars, and Divyadesams, I learnt that one of the Alwar Kulashekhara Perumal was one time Kerala king and 11 Divyadesams fall in Kerala.  I came to Cochin University in 1998, with my wishes of converting the Tamil script of Divyaprabantham in to Malayalam, and started my work alone in 1999 with the blessings of lord of Thirukaatkarai, - one of the Divyadesams, near to my institute, -with the available text from ramanuja.org.  But proof reading was very difficult and slow till accidentally once I mailed to Mr. Venkat regarding Divyaprabantham audio. Fortunately he was also willing for a collaborative work that took long six months of dedicated work to finish with. Finally I am really happy now that I can read it in Malayalam.

        People of Kerala worship have a mixed worship. Kerala temple culture in more related to Thanthrik type and a separate cast called Nampoothiries perform poojas here. It is believed that Parashuram has made Kerala from sea, and for the protection through out coastal areas he had made Durga temples, in the hillocks he made temples for lord Ayyappa and the fertile midlands are filled with temples for lord Siva and Vishnu. There are 11 temples viz., Thirunaavaay, ThiruviththuvakkOdu, Thirukkaatkarai, Thiru mUzhikkaLam, Thiruvallavaazh, Thirukkadiththaanam, ThiruchchengkunRanUr, Thiruppuliyur, ThiruvaaRanviLai, ThiruvaNvaNdUr, Thiruananthapuram as per Mangalasasanams of Nammalwar, Kulashekhara perumal and Thirumankai Alwar. Interestingly temple at Thiruvanchikkulam (Lord Siva) is sung by Sundaramoorthy Nayanar.

        Besides these famous temples of Guruvayoor, Koodalmanikkam, Thripprayar, Paayummal, Thiruvilwaamalai, Thirunelli, Thiruvangaad, Thripoonithura, have dates back to the second and third Sangham ages but not sung by Azhwar. The temples at Koodalmanikkam (Bharathan), Payummal (Sathrughnan) & Thripprayaar (Raman) are associated with a Mangalaasaanam temple Thirumoozhikalam. People consider the deity of ThiruMoozhikkalam as Lakshman. The deity of Koodalmanikkam is unique in the Nintra Thirukkolams in Kerala; the deity is rather regarded as Poorna Purushan. The temple of Thrippoonithura is a very unique temple in Kerala, it is the family temple of Kochi Royal Family. The deity is known as Poornathrayeesan, one who knows three Vedas; the deity is in the sitting posture in serpent bed. Thiruananthapuram from which Kulashekhara Azhwar, hailed is another unique temple where largest of Sayanaperumal in all the Divyadeshams resides. Thirunaavay is the only divyadesam which has got a separate shrine for thayar, in all other places we find a mixed savite and vaishnavaite deities.

Sreekanth
Research Scholor
Dept of Applied Chemistry
Cochin University of Science And Technology
Cochin -682022
email:sreekanth_a@yahoo.com