Elamakkara Perandoor Bhagavathi temple is located at
Elamakkara (Chambady Rd, Punnakkal), Kochi, Ernakulam district,
Kerala. The temple is dedicated to Goddess Durga and is one among the 108 Durga
temples in Kerala. The 8-day annual festival in the temple is held in Malayalam
Meda masam (April – May) and concludes with arattu ceremony on Uthram nakshatra
day.
Perandoor Durga Bhagavathi is the Kula Devatha of many
families in the region. This is a beautiful Kerala style temple with two
entrances. The upa devatas are Ganapathy, Shiva, Ayyappa, Yakshi and Nagas. There
is a huge banyan tree and a temple pond which elevates the ambience of the
shrine.
The darshanam of the main deity is towards east. The temple
has a two tier chathura sreekovil.
As per history, the temple belonged to the Edappally
swaroopam. The shrine is now maintained by NSS.
It is said that ruler of Edappally swaroopam who had gone to
participate in a temple festival near Cherthala happened to have a dream. In
the dream, Bhagavathy appeared and asked the king to give her a place next to
Ganapathi who was the family deity of Edappally swaroopam. Bhagavathy gave the
location of a murti of hers which was hidden.
The ruler retrieved the murti and moved towards his palace.
On the way the murti of Durga fell from his hand. The murti got stuck there and
it became immovable. The king then consulted elders and astrologers, who
informed that a Durga temple which was consecrated by Parashurama existed in the
spot. Thus the Perandoor temple was constructed.
Apart from the annual festival, the shrine also observes
Navratri with vidyarambham, Thrikarthika festival and makam thozhal.