One of my university colleagues called me on a recent day. After pleasantries he came straight to the point, “Hey, I am in Kerala for an Ayurveda treatment, I have a day to spare. Where should I go to get a feel of Kerala?” I asked, “Does this feel include art and culture, or is it just food and nature?” As an active member of the cultural milieu of Vadodara, he had to admit that it indeed included culture. I asked where he was taking the Ayurveda treatment. He mentioned some places in the northern region of Ernakulam district. So I advised him to visit the Vadakkunnathan temple in Thrissur. “Why this temple?” my friend wanted to provoke me. “Because,” I said, “it is the Ideal example of Kerala architecture.” Though my friend did not probe further, it made me think what I really meant by an “ideal example” of Kerala temple architecture.
I am not sure whether the authorities of Kerala tourism who coined the brand, ‘God’s own country’, were aware of the sheer number of religious structures in Kerala compared to other states of India. Among these are multitudes of temples, mosques, churches and even some synagogues. Though at present they may look different, but in olden times they all looked similar with pyramidal roofs and terracotta or copper tiles. No doubt that the local climatic factors influenced the architecture design. What makes it distinct is a floor plan suitable to the religious activities conducted in these structures.
Temple architecture in Kerala took inspiration from Pallava and Chalukyan architecture developed in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Stella Kramrisch, a pioneer in the study of Kerala temple architecture, suggests Buddhist antecedents, which is worth looking at. She brings in the Gandhara and Sri Lankan examples of cloistered temples as the sources of Kerala architecture. Given the trade links between Kerala and Sri Lanka and the Gandhara region, the theory may not be far-fetched.
Architecture historians name the temples of south India as dravida, with the Karnataka (Karnatadravida), Tamil Nadu (Tamildravida) and Kerala (Keraladravida) variations. Within this, Kerala temple architecture provides a different experience from that in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It’s mainly through the layout and the elevation. Kramrisch proposes that in Kerala you do find Tamil dravida style monuments, especially in some southern regions like the Pukayila Pandakasala Ganapathi temple at Kollam and the Sreenarayana temple at Sreenarayanapuram in Thiruvananthapuram district.
The Vadakkunnathan temple is an ideal example of Kerala dravida, with an exemplary layout. It is at the centre of Thrissur, with the sprawling Thekkinkadu maidan around it. The famous Thrissur Pooram festival, which was initiated by a 19th century ruler of the Kochi royal family, underlines the importance of this temple as the centre of town.
Vadakkunnathan temple is multiple-shrined structure with Shiva as the presiding deity. Along with Shiva there are shrines dedicated to Parvati, Sankaranarayana and Srirama in the same precinct, enveloped by a colonnade called as chuttambalam. The circular structure houses the images of Shiva and Parvati facing west and east, respectively. The Rama shrine on the northern side is square-shaped. The circular shrine of Sankaranarayana, a syncretic form of Shiva and Vishnu, is positioned between the Shiva and Srirama shrines.
There are balikkals or small stone pedestals placed around the shrine representing lesser deities – the ashtadikpalas like Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirti, Varuna, Vayu, Soma and Isana, along with Ananta and Brahma. This is one of the distinct features of Kerala architecture known as the panca prakara plan.
S Jayashanker, one of the best-regarded experts on the subject, writes, “In its entity, the temple complexes of Kerala fall under the panca prakara scheme of temple architecture. Prakara means enclosure or limit, and therefore panca prakara denotes five enclosures around the Sri Koil or the principal shrine.” Unlike Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where the prakaras are constructed structures, Kerala architecture has imagined or ritualistic prakaras duly demarcated by certain symbols. The devotees are not allowed to enter this imaginary periphery.
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The colonnade enveloping inner core, the chuttambalam, is the second prakara or enclosure. When we approach the temple, we see only the vilakkumadam, usually made of wood with a series of brass lamps. It can be a nice spectacle at evenings when they are lit up. Vilakkumadam is the fourth prakara. Between the vilakkumadam and the chuttambalam is another enclosure which is seldom used for the daily rituals of the temple.
The final and outermost prakara is known as maryada. Maryada is the exterior wall with openings in the cardinal directions. These openings can be simple doorways or intricately decorated monumental structures called gopurams. When reading the word gopuram, many might visualise the gopurams of the Madurai Meenakshi temple or Padmanabha Swami temple at Thiruvananthapuram. However, there is also the Kerala version of the gopuram exemplified magnificently at Vadakkunnathan.
The temple also has auxiliary structures such as the Kootthambalam within its precinct, making it a unique temple complex to showcasing Kerala dravida architecture. And thus, it is the ideal Kerala temple.
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