Famous Sri Krishna temple. Review on Guruvayurappan Temple, Guruvayoor

The guruvayoor temple in guruvayoor of thrissur district of Kerala is an important pilgrim center. The main deity here is guruvayoor appan also called guruvayoor unnikannan. There are many myths associated with the temple. One is in the name itself unnikannan means baby krishna, but the idol is in the form of four faced Vishnu like in most Vishnu temples, but the idol is treated as that of Sri Krishna and more specifically baby Krishna.

There are many more myths surrounding the temple and more so about the idol, particularly their origin . But the temple is in the current form was built around 16th century. The tempel follows Kerala temple architecture. Some of the myts say that the idol was used by sri krishna himself. There are many more myths and also in recent history the stories of poonthanam and also the satygraha for common man to enter the temple are part of history and offers an interesting read. There are many articles online for this.

Apart from the main deity, two things famous about the temple will be the temple elephants and also thulabahram. Thulabahram is practice where equal offering in weigt of the person is given to the temple. In earlier days days devotees used to bring the items for thulbabaram, recently it has become more of ritual. The temple is also a famous place to get married. Daily a number of marriages are held in front of the temple and also in auditoriums surrounding it. Early days before internet and hay days of arranged marriage there are stories of brides and grooms getting mixed up due to the rush here.

Even more famous is the elephants. Elephants were donated to the temple as offerings from rich and famous. Earlier it used to be kings and lords, nowadays it is politicians and film stars. But currently the temple has stopped accepting new elephants. People who want can money towards the welfare of current elephants as offering. Currently the temple has around 50 elephants and are kept at punnathur kotta couple of kilometers from the temple. Anayottam, elephant race associated with the main festival is also famous and attracts a lot of crowd.

One of the problems faced during a visit here, there is always a queue to view the main deity in the leanest of days. But if you know the right people or are a vip you could bypass the queue. The vip culture followed here is more irritating, and by vip, peple with a lot of money. With the type of offerings that go on here guruvayoor is synonymous with money. Due to the fame of the temple the surrounding area has  also undergone development, although mainly in property development.

But guruavyooappn is a integral part of the Kerala hindu community and is considered a very powerful deity. Getting here is easy, one could use the nh 66(old nh 17) and take a small diversion or use road from kunnamkulam thrisuur, it is well connected by a number of roads. Also you could use the railway line from thrissur that terminates here.