Legend has it that Koodalmanickyam was where King Bharatha ruled at the golden padukas of Srirama, as he waited for Sriram's 16 year vana vas to end, but I was at Bharatha's temple for another reason.
It is believed that if you give a lotus garland to the lord and pray for the rains to stop; they will. The month was June, when rain lashes mercilessly across the Kerala coast and all of India rejoices the advent of the rains. My wedding was on June 13 and I did not have much hopes of beating the rain god, but as a last effort, prayed to Bharatha to save us on the wedding day. Lo and Behold! the rains stayed off for the important outdoor pujas and we had a hassle free wedding and Bharatha an immediate convert. Now I was at the temple to fulfill my promise.
At 4 o'clock in the morning, the temple lies silent, cloaked in a veil of mist. Once past the imposing gates, it is a long trek to the srikovil, or the sanctum sanctorum. We decided to enter through the right entrance, the one facing the sacred pond. I held on to my saree for dear life, for, like the most rigid of kerala temples, Bharatha also insists in a strict code of sarees for women, long skirts or pavadai davani for girls and veshtis with no shirts or banians for the men. The attire to meet the King is that of an obedient subject.
Once inside, what hits the eye is the beauty of the 'vattasrikovil' or the round srikovil. Befitting his status as the god of the arts, the srikovil is adorned with beautiful mural paintings. Bharatha himself is a surprise. Unlike the usual small statues of Guruvayoorappan etc, Bharatha stand well over 6 feet. He is the perfect mystic warrior, with the bow in one hand, japa beads on the other. To symbolise the fact that he is indeed the mortal avtar of the divine conch of Vishnu he carries a conch in his hand. The beauty of the statue is beyond words, it is said that once Bharatha had a ruby in his divine locks and a kerala king inorder to compare the beauty of his ruby, held it against Bharatha's statue, whereupon it merged with the lord, adding to Bharatha's beauty.
The temple has 'meenoottu' or feeding the fish, as one of its main archanas. All set to feed the fish, we were disappointed to see that all we were allowed to do is to walk behind a pujari as he carried the bowl with the fish feed and threw it to the fish. Seeing our disappointment he told us that the fish here were the devas who came to see Kulipani maharshi perform a mahayaga here. Once they gave him the darshan, they turned into fish and continue to live in the pond, the pond too is extremly auspicious as it is considered to be Ganga and Yamuna as one. It is so sacred that the pujaris who perform the pujas in the temple, first take a bath in the pond outside the temple and take the second one here, in a special enclosure. I suddenly realised what had been haunting me since the morning darshan, iinspite of the fact that the outer pond contained toads whose haunting sound filled the air, the internal pond was tranquil, no frogs, toads, snakes or even insects!
