Meenkulathi Temple, Pallassena

Meenkulathi Temple, also called Meenkulathikkavu, is held to be the oldest temple in the village of Pallassena in Palakkad district. Tradition says three Veerasaiva Mannadiar families fled a drought in Chidambaram carrying a stone they worshipped as Meenakshi, settled here and prospered as diamond traders. When an elder could not lift a palm-leaf umbrella he had left with two youths, an astrologer declared the goddess had manifested beneath it. The shrine and its tank grew over the following four centuries.

Built in the Tamil Nadu style, the temple is designed so that its walls cast no shadow on the ground. A teak flagstaff sheathed in copper leads to a large image of Meenakshi Amman ringed by the Saptha Mathas, and there are many fish figures, since the goddess is linked with water life. Navarathri and the eight-day Maasi festival, with Kathakali and Ottamthullal, are major events, and bathing in the fish-filled tank is believed to heal long-standing ailments.