Manakkattu Devi Temple

Manakkattu Devi Temple stands at Pallippad, in the Karthikappalli taluk of Alappuzha district, about 4 kilometres east of Haripad on the Nangiarkulangara–Mavelikkara road. Legend places the area within the Khandava forest of the Mahabharata. Long after that forest burned, a farm woman whetting her sickle on a stone saw blood flow from it; a priest of the Kochoor Madam family came and found an image of Bhuvaneswari, which he consecrated near an old Sastha shrine believed to be Parashurama's.

The goddess, Manakkattamma, is worshipped as Bhuvaneswari and, as at Mookambika, receives three separate pujas each day as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi; kadumpayasam and therali are her chief offerings. An important sub-deity is Valiyachan, Kunjekutty Pillai, commander of the army under Dharma Raja Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma and credited with victory over Tipu Sultan, who spent his later years in the goddess's service; his story is told in the Aithihyamala. A Yakshi and Nagaraja are among the other sub-deities.