Peruviruthy Malanada

Peruviruthy Malanada, often just Malanada, is a hill shrine at Edakkad in Poruvazhy village, Kunnathoor taluk, on the northern edge of Kollam district, roughly 25 km from Adoor, Sasthamcotta, Kayamkulam and Karunagappally. The name means temple on the hill. There is no idol and no sanctum: in their place is a raised platform, and devotees offer themselves to a divine power through an inner act of resolve, or sankalpam.

The deity invoked is believed to be Duryodhana, the Kaurava king of the Mahabharata, an idea described as unique in India. Legend says that while searching the forests for the exiled Pandavas he reached this hill, tired, and asked for water at a nearby house. An elderly woman of the Kurava community offered him toddy, as custom then required, and the king came to recognise the holiness of the place and of its people, who were believed to hold supernatural powers. Paddy fields spread below the hill to the south and west.