सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

The Thirunakkara Mahadeva Temple stands on a small rise in the middle of Kottayam town, and its presiding Shiva is addressed with affection as Thirunakkara Thevar — the Lord of Thirunakkara. The temple is traditionally associated with the rulers of the old Thekkumkur kingdom, who are remembered as its patrons; the sthala tradition tells that the Thekkumkur raja, a devotee of Shiva of Vadakkunnathan, was blessed with the Lord's presence at this spot, and the shrine rose there. Built in classic Kerala style with a gabled sanctum, copper roofing and a spacious walled compound, the temple also preserves fine mural paintings and a koothambalam (temple theatre). Its annual utsavam in Meenam, universally called the Thirunakkara Arattu after its concluding rite, is the great civic-religious event of Kottayam, drawing the whole town into ten days of ritual and performance.

The festival opens with the kodiyettu, the hoisting of the temple flag, after which the deity's processional image is taken out daily on caparisoned elephants to the music of pandi and panchari melam percussion. The festival days are filled with Kerala's classical and ritual arts — Kathakali in the koothambalam, and the rare spectacle of Mayilattam (peacock dance) and Velakali, the martial dance in which performers in the costume of old Nair soldiers enact a stylised combat before the deity. On the ninth day comes the pallivetta, the symbolic royal hunt. The tenth day is the arattu itself: the deity is carried in a grand elephant procession through the streets of Kottayam to the temple tank or bathing ghat, where the image receives its ceremonial immersion. The return procession, ablaze with lamps and accompanied by massed percussion, brings the utsavam to its close.

The Arattu belongs to Kottayam's streets and cannot be reproduced abroad, but Malayali families in Ottawa keep the thread in simpler ways. Many watch festival processions through live streams and video shared during the Meenam season, or hear first-hand accounts from relatives in Kottayam. At home, the festival days can be marked with an evening lamp and Shiva worship — chanting Om Namah Shivaya, the Lingashtakam or a rudra hymn — in the spirit of the utsavam. Parents often use the occasion to introduce children to Kerala temple arts such as Kathakali and Velakali through recordings. Families visiting Kerala in March–April can plan around the festival, remembering that the ten days are fixed by the temple's Malayalam-calendar reckoning and announced each year.