ചരിത്രം

The temple in its present form was built sometime in the 1900s by Sri Ayilliath Narayanan Nambiar, known as Judge Valiachan to many, as he retired as the District & Sessions Judge of Thalassery District Court. (This was a very distinguished position in the days of British India when William Logan was the Collector of Malabar). His wife Ningileri Thayillath Parvathy Amma is the daughter of Ningileri Thayillath Meenakshi Amma, fondly called Muthachi. Some people living today remember seeing both Parvathy Valiamma who lived in Cheriya Ningileri house and her mother Muthachi who lived in Thayillath house.  

Sri Ayillath Narayanan Nambiar, B.A., B.L., Subordinate Judge, Calicut, comes of a branch of the aristocratic family of Malabar known as Randu Thara Achanmars, the members of which once exercised Civil and Judicial powers. They were under the control of the Rajah of Chirakkal. His uncle Ayillath Chattu Nambiar was a District Munsif. Having received his early education at Tellicherry and Calicut he was admitted to the B.A. degree from the Presidency College, Madras, in 1886 at the early age of twenty. He took his B.L. degree in 1889 and having served as an apprentice under the famous lawyer, Sir Sankaran Nair, he was enrolled as a High Court Vakil in 1890. He practiced as such for five years at Madras, when he was entertained in the Judicial Department as a District Munsif. He acted for a short time as the District Judge of Tellicherry.

How the temple property came into the possession of Muthachi (and later inherited by her daughter Parvathy Valiamma), and what prompted Judge Valiachan to construct the temple are anecdotes that many of us have heard from our elders.

It turned out that one daughter of Parvathy Valiamma and Judge Valiachan, named Kanthimathi, suffered from some mental illness and consequently died at an early age. Some of the other children were also facing various problems and, as is customary in those days, Judge Valiachan consulted the family astrologer to find out the root cause of doshaas (problems) in the family. After conducting a Prasnam (query session) the astrologer advised that there is an idol of Mahavishnu lying unnoticed and neglected in the family property at Naravoor and that it should be reinstated and worshipped after constructing a temple.  

As per the legend, the real-property in Naravoor, where the Mahavishnu temple is situated, were in the possession of a few Namboothiri families during the 1700-1800 period. At that time the Namboothiri Illam, called Chaathaadi Mana, was maintaining a small temple that had two deities of Lord Vishnu and Lordess Durga. In the 1780s, during Tipu Sultan's invasion of Malabar (Tippuvinte Padayottam), many temples were burned down, desecrated, and destroyed. The Namboothiri families of this region, sensing danger from the advancing army of Tipu Sultan, had escaped to safer places leaving behind their landed property. Before their escape they had safely kept the deities in a well to conceal them from the eyes of Tipu’s men. In the course of time, the ownership of the land changed hands and finally in the 1850s came into the hands of the grand old Muthaachi (Meenakshi Amma), the founder of Thayillath branch (thaavazhi) of Ningileri Tharavad.

Judge Valiachan, guided by the astrological prediction, recovered the idol of Lord Vishnu from the abandoned well of the Naravoor property. This dark granite idol, which had broken into pieces, was restored to its full glory and consecrated in a newly built temple. Constructing a temple under the ownership of a single individual was a rare feat in those days. 

Thus the temple came to be the property of Ningileri Thayillath family and its sustenance and upkeep became the paramount responsibility of the descendants of Thayillath thavazhi.