Devi temple protects roosters

Thrissur, Feb 4 (UNI) Even though animal sacrifice is one of the important rituals in some of the Devi temples in Kerala, a Devi temple at Pazhayannur in the district is protecting and feeding them.

While in Devi temples devotees sacrifice cocks as a gratitude for fulfilling their vows, the Pazhayannur Devi temple is protecting and feeding them regularly.

''The temple has been receiving more than 500 roosters every year as offerings from devotees, irrespective of castes,'' says 63-year-old Upendra Pisharodi.

''It is not possible to count and give an exact number of cocks belonging to the temple and it may cross thousand,'' he told UNI.

According to legend the Goddess arrived the place on the back of a rooster some 1,000 years ago, he claimed.

Mr Pisharodi, who is working as 'Kazhakam' in the temple during the past 45 years, said since roosters were considered as vehicle of the Goddess in this temple, local people do not dare kill them.

Though the temple has a huge cage, only a few cocks used the ''luxury cottage'' accommodation and others liked to nestle either in the nearby trees or houses. The temple cocks could be seen around ten-km radius of the shrine.

''Kozhiparathal'' (releasing cocks in the temple) and ''Kozhiyoottu'' (feeding of roosters) are the two important offerings at the temple, he said.

Mr Pisharodi said while in all other temples, touching or eating of ''nivedyam'' (offerings to gods) by human beings and birds, other than the priest, was considered to be losing its purity, here it is believed that the goddess satisfied and accepted it if the rooster takes the ''nivedyam''.

Unlike other temples the rooster's at the Pazhayannur Devi temple were not auctioned off as the birds were considered as wealth of the Goddess. They were allowed to have natural deaths, he said.

Though devotees offered 'kozhiyootu'' (feeding cocks with rice), the temple authorities used to feed them once in a day inside the temple. All the cocks would come to the temple to take the 'prasadam'' of Devi, he said.

As a large number of birds nestled inside the temple, they would make alert sound if strangers entered the shrine after its closure.

UNI