Visit to Kavasseri Pooram

One has just returned after a close encounter with nature at Kavasseri village in
Kerala State. Kavasseri is a 60 minute drive away from Palakkad Town. Kavasseri is
more famously known as the home of Parakkat Devi Temple, which has an annual
festival every April (during the Kerala New Year), featuring nine temple elephants and
divine music (panchavadyam). The deity is carried on elephant back accompanied to
the sound of drums and music from its present abode to its ancient abode (the
original Parakkat Devi temple is just a kilometer away from the present temple.

Here at the old temple, a panchavadyam (five musical instruments played in tandem)
performance goes on for five hours as the mother goddess is worshipped with a
thousand coconut oil lamps. The nine elephants, covered in gold headgear and
colourful umbrellas, rest under the giant trees that surround this temple enjoying a
snack of bananas and coconut leaves. The elephant procession moves in an orderly
line followed by hundreds of locals, visitors and tourists on foot. It is indeed a
pleasure seeing the elephants line up before the parade and then slowly move in a
procession to the main temple to return the mother goddess to her sanctuary.

The whole village of Kavasseri is decorated with colourful flowers, plantain leaves,
coconut leaves and brass lamps. Every house celebrates Kavasseri Pooram by setting
up impromptu roadside stalls which sell everything from fresh lime juice to
watermelon salads to idlis and doshas. The devotees enjoy eating in the outdoors
under the shade of trees around which these stalls are set up. One can also buy
kathakali masks, coir footwear, Kerala brass lamps, cold pressed coconut oil and
traditional handicrafts at the pooram stalls at Kavasseri. The pooram is a one day
event and starts at 11:00 a.m. and concludes at 7:00 p.m. The music performance
goes on from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is incredibly addictive with the sound of the
trumpets, flutes, cymbals and drums

panchavadyam in Malayalam means "five instruments". It is a form of ritual temple

music that accompanies elephant parades during temple festivals and is performed
by several musicians playing five different kinds of musical instruments. The music is
played to wake the mother goddess so that the deity would bless the ensuing
festivities. Four percussion instruments including the timila, maddalam, ilathalam and
idakka — is accompanied by the soothing sound of , the kombu, is a wind instrument.
The rhythmic beats of the music puts one into a trance as the music follows a
binaural beat pattern. Binaural beat music is used by NLP therapists to put patients
into a light trance before starting creative visualization exercises. Thus, the main role
of the panchavadyam music was to distress the devotees by putting them into a mild
trance, by the use of binaural beats. The community spirit festered by the occasion
and the celebration of the festival by the entire village in unison also created an aura
of calmness, peace, gaiety and greenery which was relaxing for the body, mind and
soul.

Kavasseri is a small village located in the interiors of Palakkad District, away from the
hustle and bustle of modern life. One wakes up in the morning to the sweet songs of
the hundrerds of colourful birds that are perched on the giant trees that surround
your heavenly abode. The shrill cries of peacocks can be heard at sunset as they
search the forest for fallen fruits. At late nights its not uncommon to hear the shrill
howling of the packs of jackals that roam the outskirts of the forests. There are
several uninhabited hills that surround the rice fields of Palakkad.
Kavasseri, in Kerala situated in the border with Tamil Nadu is a sanctuary for the
Malabar Hornbill and several other colourful birds. This extraordinary area gets partly
inundated by about 2 feet of water in the monsoon months (July-September). Once
below sea level, this area was raised by earth movements which cut it off from the
Eastern Ghats. It was broken up by later earth movements into flat farmlands (where
people can be seen growing rice) and higher grounds with sandy, salt-free soil. The
Hornbill depends on the thorny scrub of the higher ground area for its feed. The other
wildlife sighted at Palakkad includes blue bull, elephants, foxes, jackals, wild-cats,
and caracals.

How to get there?

Kavasseri is 30 km. away from Palakkad Town. The non-stop drive from Palakkad to
Kavasseri should not exceed sixty minutes.
By road:
Visitors traveling by road have to drive from Palakkad to Kavasseri which is
approximately 30 km.

By air:
The nearest airport to reach Palakkad is at Coimbatore. Coimbatore is connected by
direct flights from most Indian cities.

By train:
Palakkad Railway Station is the nearest railhead to reach Kavasseri. From Palakkad
private buses ply to Kavasseri via Alathur.
All trains going to Kochi and Thiruvanthapuram via Coimbatore stop at Palakkad.

Where to stay?
The Fort Palace Hotel is the most convenient place to stay during one’s visit to
Palakkad. This Resort arranges jeeps for the jungle safari. The resort charges Rs.
1500/- for an air-conditioned double room with an attached bathroom.

Homestays are the only option for tourists who want to visit Kavasseri. A family of
four can avail a homestay at Rs. 2000/- per night, exclusive of food. Breakfast, lunch
and dinner which includes traditional Kerala delicacies like idlis, doshas, injipuli
(ginger with tamarind) , rice and elisseri (pumpkin) can be home delivered from the
small eateries at Kavasseri.

Where to eat?

Lots of small restaurants serving Malayali vegetarian cuisine dot Palakkad. Freshly
steamed vegetables with spices, cooked in coconut milk, with hot freshly steamed
idlis are available at most roadside dhabas. The food at the high profile hotels is only
for the gastronomically adventurous who like greasy food. Vegans can opt for fresh
tropical fruits including water-melons, papayas, tender coconuts and bananas which
are available at the local market.

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Murli Menon, is a travel writer, stress management consultant and
author based at Ahmedabad, India. He is the author of "ZeNLP-
Learning through stories" published by The Written Word Publications,
"ZeNLP-the power to succeed" published by Sage publications and
“ZeNLP-the power to relax” by New Dawn Press. He can be reached at
ceo@tips4ceos.com
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Murli Menon
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Phone:079-25600269
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High resolution digital photographs attached with caption.

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by emailing us at ceo@tips4ceos.com

________________________________________________________________________
Courier payments/published magazine author copies to:
Murli Menon
E/503, Borsali Apt;
Khanpur
Ahmedabad-380001
Phone:079-25600269
________________________________________________________________________

High resolution digital photographs attached with caption.

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Elephants enjoying a snack

Panchavadyam in full progress

Devotees seek blessings of the divine elephants

One of the elephants in the procession

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