Temples of Kasaragod District (An Old and Rare Book)

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Temples of Kerala is an intercensal study taken up under the aegis of the census organization by the author Shri S. Jayashanker who is a retired Deputy Director of Census Operations in the Kerala Census Directorate. He has undertaken the study and prepared the book with a commitment and dedication that are in the true census tradition of bringing out outstanding monographs on special studies. After five years of painstaking data collection and collation work, the volume titled Temples of Kerala was published recently and it has evoked justified commendations. Shri Asok Mitra, ex-Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India described it as a "fascinating and comprehensive book" which is "in the true tradition of Indian Census and will remain a matter of great pride in my collection as a companion of the works of my colleagues and predecessors Shri P. Padmanabha, ex-Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India commended it as "an excellent publication and very well produced". Dr. Karan Singh, eminent scholar, congratulated the census organization on bringing out this excellent publication and hoped that we will do the same with other States. Another scholar described the book as a virtual encyclopaedic storehouse of information on temples.

The present set of volumes on the temples of each district, forms a worthy companion series to the above-mentioned general volume Temples of Kerala. These multiple volumes exhaustively enumerate and present the details of the temples in each district, covering about twenty thousand temples for the whole state. They contain a veritable goldmine of data and encapsulate the diligent and dedicated work put in by the author who has undertaken it with exemplary zeal and devotion with the help and assistance of all those who have been acknowledged in the preface. The photographs, diagrams and maps and the exhaustive glossary and transliteration details provide rich reference material and add value to the publication. I hope that this valuable set of publications will enrich the collections and satiate the data needs of a wide spectrum of users by unveiling the rich heritage lying hidden in the temples of Kerala going back up to three millennia of antiquity for the benefit of posterity in these historic times when the 21st century is round the corner and we have just entered the 52nd century as per the ancient Indian Calendar.

The monograph on Temples of Kerala which was published earlier covered the general aspects on temples in Kerala like history of temples over the last two thousand years, mode of worship, architectural features, iconography of idols, devu prasham, temple rites, priesthood, temple customs, offerings, temple administration, ritualistic and performing arts, carvings and paintings etc. This volume, the first in the series of district volumes, is an addendum to the monograph on Temples of Kerala and it attempts to cover an account of the temples of Kasaragod district. The background of taking up this exhaustive study needs little elaboration. The Census Organization of India undertook a study on "Temples of Madras State as an ancillary study of the 1001 census. This study evoked keen interest among scholars, the Government and statutory bodies of Kerala etc. Late Sree R. Vasudeva Poduval a renowned Archaeologist, requested the Registrar General, India Gate Sree A. Chandrasekhar) as early as 1909 to launch a study on temples of Kerala similar to the one that was conducted in Madras state and the latter readily agreed to this suggestion. But the study could not be taken up due to heavy pressure of work in connection with the 1971 census. In 1973, the Travancore Devaswom Board also came up with a similar request but the backlog of census work of 1971 census stood in the way in launching the study. In 1979. the Advisor to the Government of Kerala on Temples and Traditional Arts again requested the Director of Census Operations to commence the study. But again some unforeseen circumstances prevented the organization from taking up the study. However, in May 1990, the Government of Kerala again requested the Census Directorate to take up a detailed survey on Temples of Kerala and the Registrar General (Sree A.R. Nanda) directed to commence the survey in June 1991.

For canvassing the data a schedule was designed in consultation with thanthris. silpis etc., besides incorporating the valuable suggestions given by Sree A.R. Nanda, LAS. (former Registrar General, India), late Dr. K.P. Ittaman (former Deputy Registrar General. India) and late Sree K.C. Narayaņa Kurup (former Deputy Director of Census Operations. Madras). The schedules were printed in September 1991 and the work commenced.

Originally it was decided to collect data of temples by mailing the schedules to temple authorities of statutory bodies and collecting details by deputing trained field staff to temples exclusively managed by private Individuals and institutions. But this procedure did not work well as the response from the statutory bodies was found defective as the filled in schedules had both content and coverage errors. Therefore in March 1992 it was decided to engage a small team of trained staff for the Duectorate of Census Operations, Kerala) for the field-study. The survey covered all temples which are open to public, Irrespective of whether they are owned by statutory bodies, private institutions, families or individuals.

The procedure for the collection of data for the survey deserves special mention. The stall deputed for this study was directed to visit all panchaayathths, village offices and note down the names and location of all temples. They were then directed to visit all such temples located in every nook and corner of the panchaayathth, some of which situated even in dense forests and in areas inaccessible by roads, apart from making local enquiries on any possible omissions. These visits and enquiries helped them to prepare a directory of all temples open to public and collect data regarding the name. location, principal deity, antiquity, structural type of main sreckovd, time of worship and poojas, uthsawam/festival besides details on ownership/management. Further based on certain criteria, ie, all the temples having surayambhoo (self-revealed) idols and other Important temples depending on number of praaknaras, architectural excellence, number of pogas, antiquity and number of worshippers, were selected for detailed study It may be said that great care has been taken to include almost all important temples based on these criteria and the data so collected through a separate detailed schedule are presented in Section 2 of this volume. In this context it is to be noted that every effort was made to cover all important temples. This does not mean that other temples are unimportant But the more prominent ones based on the above mentioned specified criteria were given due weightage.

It is worthwhile to mention here the limitations of the data. The informants. mainly temple authorities, were generally co-operative. However, some of them were reluctant to provide details fearing that their private temples might be taken over by the Government and they took the stand that those temples were exclusively used by family members and not open to public. On the other hand some insisted on having their temples enumerated hoping to get some financial assistance for their family temples at a later stage. Another difficulty encountered by the field staff was that very often they had to go to the same temple several times to collect details as the temples were kept open only for specified hours (either morning or noon or evening) besides non-availability of reliable informants. Similarly it was difficult to verify the claim of informants on the data of antiquity and myths associated with those temples. In spite of these limitations every effort was made to collect detailed data. The field-survey of Kasaragod district was done during 1993-95 and, therefore, subsequent changes on structures, idols etc have not been incorporated in this volume.

The data thus collected through the field survey is published in this volume. The earlier proposed title of the volume, etc.. Temple Directory (mentioned in the earlier monograph), had to be changed consequent on the introduction of a section dealing with the general background of temples of the district. Thus this volume has three sections iz. Section 1: General Background. Section 2: Sallent features on important temples and Section 3. Temple Directory (which covers list of temples in Kasaragod district falling in panchaayathths and statutory bodies).