My journey to the temple town of Guruvayur - Part 2

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In this post, I will be writing on the places I had visited in the town of Guruvayur.
To start with, I went to Anakotta (Punnathurkotta) followed by the Mammiyur Mahadeva Temple.

Anakotta in Malayalam, translates to "elephant fort" is situated 2 kilometre away from the 
famous Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple. In a ten acre plot of coconut groves along with small temple, a dilapidated Punnathurkotta palace, few buildings, it is the abode for 60 to 85 elephants. The Anakotta premises and the animals are owned and managed by the Guruvayur Devaswom Board. There is also a small disused temple in the Anakotta. I felt the Anakotta was the perfect place for a elephant to live. It is more like a miniature forest, environment friendly to animals and the elephants have lot to eat and drink. The mahouts know and understand each elephant and are very caring.

 When we reached there, the elephants were either eating royally, towering over everybody else or were bending low letting their mahout scrub and bath them. Few elephants though, were spraying the water on themselves. It was a treat for my eyes to see how they raise up their trunks in a saluting position and then spray the water on their back.

Currently, the head of the elephants in Guruvayur is a 65 year old elephant named "Padmanabhan". He is known for his elegant and majestic looks. He has the privilege to carry the "thidambu"(decorated image of the idol),on his head.When I saw him, he was lurking behind in a corner, eating leaves. It was a sure contrast from how he sweeps everybody's attention at the Pooram with his regal mannerisms. Few of the other main elephants are  Nandan, Sreedharan, Madhavan.

 We had a quick chat with one of the mahouts. He gave us some interesting facts. He mentioned that an elephant with perfect physical features will not live long. In the case of "Padmanabhan", one of the tusks is slightly bent when compared to the other tusk. The head of the elephant is decided based on their physical characteristics, mannerisms etc. right from their young age.
After an exciting experience at Anakotta, we moved to the Mammiyur Mahadeva temple.The temple is half a kilometre away from the Guruvayur Sree Krishna temple. 
As a ritual, every devotee visiting the Guruvayur Sree Krishna temple must visit the Mammiyur Mahadeva temple. The main deity of this temple is Shiva, but it also houses Parvathi, Ganapathi, Subramanian, Shastha and Mahavishnu. Apart from them, it also has the Nagas, Bhadrakali and   Brahmaraakshas.
 

 I like this temple because of it's symmetrical structure and it's perfectly carved idols. The temple is well planned, with air vents and is enclosed by walls on four sides except for an opening, which leads to the huge temple tank.

 In my next and last blog of this series, I will blogging on my visit to the 
Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple.
Please read it.😃😄     

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