Kadakkal Devi Temple

Kadakkal Devi Temple stands in Kadakkal, an agricultural village in eastern Kollam district known for spices and for its part in social movements before Independence. It is counted among the foremost Devi temples of Kerala. Four shrines, the Devi temple, a Shiva temple, the Taliyil temple and the Kilimarathukavu temple, stand at equal distances around the temple pond, Kadakkal Chira. The main Devi temple is unusual in having neither an idol nor a pujari.

Legend says the goddess came from Tamil Nadu with her sisters; another story tells that she killed a Tamil trader, Panayappan, who had wronged her family, and then settled in a wooden shop, the peedika, that became the sanctum. The ten-day Kadakkal Thiruvathira in Kumbham (February–March) celebrates her birthday: thousands of women offer pongala in the temple grounds, the Kuthirayeduppu procession, Kuthiyottam and pageants follow, and the festival ends with the midnight Guruzi ritual. Every twelve years her sacred circlet is carried in procession to the Kalari temple at Anchal, next due in 2027.