Madhur Ganapathi temple
By P.R.Ramachander
This temple is located 7 km away from the northern most important town of Kerala called Kasargode. The main temple in this complex is that of Lord Shiva. It seems in ancient times , a lady belonging to Madura caste ( Dalit) saw a place around which fire was burning. She informed the Meppadsi king about it and he found that there was a Shiva idol there and he called The God as Anantheswara and built a temple for him. But the present temple is a well built modern structure. It seems that once the people of that area wanted to perform a Yaga at the temple but they were not able to do it. So they consulted the astrologer who told them that they were not able to do it because they have not done Poooja to Lord Ganapathy. So they installed a separate Ganapathy statue and built an enclosure for it. Later it seems they found the idol was growing in size. One old Woman devotee was worried that the statue will grow so big that it will break the roof. So she kept her hand on the head of the Ganapathy statue and requested the God to grow side ways and not in height. Anyway the result is a very huge statue of Ganapathi. Though the temple is that of Shiva, great importance is given to this Ganapathi. ( Another story says that the son of a temple priest , once drew a picture of Lord Ganapathi on the temple wall and this started growing and is the present statue.)
The most important offering to Lord Ganapatrhiu is Udayasthamana Appam ( a sweet dish made of rice and jaggery fried in oil) . Offering 1000 appams is one very important form of worship. The other offering is to cover the huge Ganapathi statue with appam called Appam moodal. This is only conducted in a community scale that too not regularly , in view of the huge cost involved.
Vishnu Jathre and Darasana Bali are important festivals of the temple. During the rainy season , a river adjoining the temple overflows and spills in to the temple and so it is not the most suitable time to visit the temple. The temple is busier on Sundays . Poojas are performed daily at 8 AM , 12.30 Noon and at 8 PM