Vilwadrinatha Temple

Vilwadrinatha Temple sits on a 100-foot hillock in the middle of Thiruvilwamala in Thrissur district. Its main deities are Rama and his brother Lakshmana, whose idol is rare in India, and it is one of four major Rama temples in Kerala, alongside Thriprayar, Kadavallur and Thiruvangad. The Bharathappuzha, flowing past about 3 kilometres to the north, is visible from the temple.

Five Moosad families, the Parasudayavar, once controlled the temple, a right believed to have been granted by Parashurama with his axe. Authority later passed to the Zamorins and then to the King of Kochi. Fire broke out in 1827 and twice in 1861, but the idols survived, and the King of Kochi built the present temple in 1883; the Cochin Devaswom Board now runs it. Legend says Shiva handed Parashurama an image of Vishnu here, and that Parashurama installed it so that the ghosts of the Kshatriyas he had slain, who begged him for redemption, could have darshan.