Inspiring Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple, Kerala

The Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple.Kerala .templepurohit.com

The Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple.Kerala  keralatourism.trave

Built during15th to  17th centuries AD by the local ruler Chembakasserry Pooradam Thirunal-Devanarayanan Thampuran,  Sri Krishna Temple at Ambalappuzha is a  well known temple in Kerala. The temple is dedicated to a form of Sri Krishna,  Parthasarathi. 

Sri Krishna idol. Ambalapuzha temple, Kerala. cpreecenvis.nic.in

 Sri Krishna took the role of  a charioteer for the Pandava brother Arjuna during the Kurushetra war between  two group of cousins Pandavas and Kauravas. Frequent  conflicts arose from a dynastic succession struggle between two groups and the Kauravas, being vicious, gave all sorts of trouble to the peace-loving Pandavas. God Krishna was on the side of the Pandavas when a big war broke out.  Knowing well that Arjuna's life would be in danger when facing him warrior  ''Karna'', equally a great archer like Arjuna,  to keep up his promise given to his mother Kunthi, used Nagasuram  (serpent missile) only once. When he at last realized  as revealed by Kunthi he had to use the formidable astharam against bis brother in the inevitable war, Karna aimed it at Arjuna's crown when the challenge was on. That point of time charioteer

Sri Krisha, the charioteer, Kurushertra war. pngkey.com

  Sri Krishna,  with a view to  saving Arjuna from  imminent  death, pushed  entire chariot hard  into the ground. The astharam knocked down Arjuna's crown on his head, thus the lord saved Arjuna's life. Since Sri Krishna was the charioteer of Parha (another name of Arjuna), he is often referred to as God Parthasarathy. There is a famous temple in Triplicane (Tiruvallikeni) in Chennai city, called Parthasarathy Perumal temple which is quite popular in Tamil Nadu.

Ambalapuzha location map. runningunlimited.wordpress.com/

The unique feature of the idol in Ambalapuzha temple is the lord holds  a whip in his right hand and a conch in his left. This idol of Sri Krishna from  the Sri Guruvayoor Temple  was  safely kept in this temple for 12 long years  The devotees and temple caretakers  of Guruvayoor temple wanted to save the idol as the Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan  in 1789  raided Kerala  and his army pulled down many Hindu temples as well as Syrian Christian churches in that state. The idol was kept in the south of this temple in a room and later was  moved back to Guruvayoor when the Sultan's threat was over. That room here is still considered holy and is referred to as 
Guruvayurambalam.

Festival time.Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple.Kerala .kerala9.com

The legend associated with this temple's famous sweet rice pudding (paal Payasam)  is as follows Once God Krishna took the guise of a sage,  went to the local ruler's court and  took wager in the game of chess (chaturanga). The king who was an expert in chess game  accepted the challenge from the sage and did not take his challenge seriously. About the prize, in case the sage won, he would be happy with a few grains of rice as he was not materialistic. He said the amount of rice would be  calculated  using the chess-board in the following manner. One grain of rice shall be placed in the first square, two grains in the second square, four in the third square, eight in the fourth square, sixteen in 5th square and so on. Every square will have double of its predecessor and so on. The ruler accepted the agreed prize.

The Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple.Kerala blessingsonthenet.com

While the game was progressing, the amount of grains increased exponentially  At last king realized his grave mistake.  The number of grains was increasing in  geometric progression and the total amount of rice required for a 64-squared chess board was beyond comprehension  running into tons of rice. The ruler lost the bet and was in a quandary. 


The God, at last  revealed his true form of Sri Krishna  when  the ruler was  quite concerned about the prize.  The lord told him that he could pay the debt to him by way of  serving  paal-payasam 

(sweet rice pudding made with milk)  in the temple freely to the devotees every day until the debt was cleared. This temple is famous for paal payasam and the it is the main offering here. It is believed that Lord Guruvayoorappan  visits the temple daily to accept the offering.

First introduced in the 15th century when this region was ruled by the Chembakassery Devanarayana Dynasty  of Tiruvancore, during the festival time  the  idol of Lord Krishna was to  brought to the Amabalapuzha Sree Krishna Swamy temple from the Karinkulam temple. This annual festival is referred to as  the Moolam day of the Mithunam month of the Malayalam era. The ''Aarattu'' festival,  the ritual bath to the deity (utchavar/procession god), yet another great event,  takes place on the Thiruvonam day in March–April. 
The temple is in Alapuzha distt. and is close (nine miles) to Alapuzha city. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambalappuzha_Sri_Krishna_Temple
 http://www.kerala9.com/directory/item/ambalappuzha-sree-krishna-temple/