Ritual and Healing: Understanding Chottanikkara through Kerala’s Tantric Traditions
Abstract
Ritual and Healing: Understanding Chottanikkara through Kerala’s Tantric Traditions
Dr. Vishaka Venka, Deekshita M, Dr. Sandhya Shankar
This paper explores the Chottanikkara Temple in Kerala through the lens of Tantric traditions. This temple is dedicated to Chottanikkara Amma, who manifests as a unique Trikāla form (Saraswati, Lakshmi and Durga). The temple complex, which comprises both Melkāvu (upper shrine) and Kīzhkāvu (lower shrine), showcases Kerala’s sacred grove culture. It also serves as a major site that integrates ecology, ritual orthodoxy, and popular healing. This paper draws from fieldwork, textual study, and oral narratives. It places Chottanikkara within the larger context of Kerala Tantra, which primarily follows the Dakṣiṇamārga while retaining aspects of Vāmamārga symbolically. Core texts such as the Tantrasamuccaya and Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati provide a ritual framework. Alongside this, practices like daily Guruti at Kīzhkāvu address afflictions and mental disorders. The role of Tantris as ritual authorities also showcases Kerala’s temple tradition. By examining rituals, legends, and lived practices of the temple, this paper argues that Chottanikkara is not only a site of worship but also a dynamic sacred space that mediates between textual authority and popular ritual creativity, sustaining both spiritual and social transformation.
Keywords: Kerala Tantric traditions, Chottanikkara Temple, Rituals, Healing.