Aruvippuram Siva Temple (Ezhava Siva)

At Aruvippuram in Kerala, the social reformer Sree Narayana Guru set up a Siva idol in 1888 in an act that challenged Brahmin dominance. Coming here in his wandering life, he resolved to create a temple where every caste could worship, took a stone from the nearby Neyyar river, and consecrated it himself.

Brahmin priests questioned whether a non-Brahmin had the right to do this. His famous reply was that he had installed an Ezhava Siva, Ezhava being his own community, considered a backward caste, and he asked whether universal power belonged to any caste. After the consecration he wrote in Malayalam that this was a model abode where all would live in brotherhood, without hatred of caste or religion. His actions are widely held to have paved the way for later temple-entry movements such as the Vaikom Satyagraha, and the 125th anniversary was celebrated in 2013.