Kaviyoor Mahadeva Temple (Thrikkaviyoor)

The temple's oldest records are two Vattezhuthu inscriptions on the granite base of the sanctum, dated Kali era 4051 and 4052 (about 950–951 CE). According to the temple, the first records a land grant by Makizhancheri Thevan Chennan to pay for a perpetual lamp, sandal paste and incense. The second records a gift of paddy fields by two men of the Mangalathu household to meet the cost of worship. The donated lands lay in Kuttanad, at places such as Kidangara, Kumarankari, Kottankari and Eera. The temple notes that the inscriptions show the full daily round of five poojas was already established, and that historians count them among the oldest inscriptions found in Kerala.

According to the temple, it was controlled for centuries by ten families of Kaviyoor village, and a record of 1530 CE lists them. The Travancore government took over the temple in 1900 and ranked it among the major devaswoms of the state. Its lands passed to the government under the Travancore land settlement of 1921, and ownership later passed to the Travancore Devaswom Board when the Board was formed. The Sreemoolarajeswari image was installed in the early 1890s on the orders of Maharaja Sri Moolam Thirunal. In the early 1930s, after a dream of Maharaja Chithira Thirunal, the Hanuman shrine was rebuilt and given full daily worship. A copper flagmast was installed in the 1930s and was replaced with a gold-covered one in 2006.

Architecture and sacred features

The temple stands on a small rise and is reached by about 21 broad steps leading to the eastern gopuram, which opens into a long elephant hall (anakkottil). According to the temple, the large circular sanctum has 44 rafters and a sandhara plan (with an inner passage). Its granite base is divided into 21 courses, and the inscriptions are carved on its moulding. The sanctum, the namaskara mandapam, the Hanuman shrine, the nalambalam and the lamp gallery are all roofed in copper.

The temple notes that the architectural historians Stella Kramrisch and H. Sarkar placed the sanctum in the early phase of Kerala temple architecture, a view supported by the 10th-century inscriptions. Hundreds of wood carvings decorate the sanctum walls and the ceilings of the namaskara mandapam, gate hall and bali-stone pavilion. Wikipedia records a laterite outer wall enclosing about two acres, gopurams on the south and west, and the Polachira lake to the west.