Kuttumuck Siva Temple

Kuttumuck Siva Temple, about 5 km north-east of Thrissur, is home to Kuttumuck Sree Mahadevan. Shiva is worshipped here as Kiratha Moorthi, the fierce hunter who tested Arjuna in a duel and then gave him the Pasupathastra. Legend puts the image at over 300 years old, though no records confirm it. Popular lore says that when Tipu Sultan's Mysore army was about to break into the temple, a swarm of bees drove the soldiers off.

Ganapathy has a shrine in the south-west corner inside the nalambalam, recently widened for easier circling. Outside, on the south, Sastha's shrine has a large sloping granite slab for breaking coconuts and a small lamp pillar, and Sabarimala pilgrims take their vows here in the Mandala season. Mahavishnu's west-facing shrine, with its own wall and balikkallu, is treated as equal to Shiva's. The ten-day utsavam ends with the Aarattu on Thiruvathira in Kumbham.