An Itinerary through the bug practices of Kerala

KOCHI: After a bone-jarring one hour bus ride from Ernakulam South Railway Station, you will reach the calm and serene temple of Devi Rajarajeswari in Chottanikkara known as Chottanikkara Bhagabathy temple.

Indian devil tree, packed with lakhs of nails and figurines.

At the temple entrance, you will lead by a large corridor with psychotic patients, which will remind you of a mental asylum. Those people believe themselves to be possessed by some evil spirit or some supernatural powers.

Chottanikkara temple is popular for the Baadhayozhippikal (Exorcism), casting out evil spirits out of a human body. According to the temple authorities this ritual is being performed only here in Kerala.

Inside the temple complex, to the eastern side of the Sanctum Sanctorum, situated the Kizhukkavu Devi temple presided by Goddess Kali. A large Paala tree (Alstonia scholaris) is planted on the north-eastern side of this temple filled with lakhs of nails and figurines.

Melasanthy Shashi Kumar said, “Those nails are being hammered by the possessed persons using their forehead which is a part of the exorcism. After hammering the nail, the loose their senses and when they wake up, they are being completely free from the evil spirit inside them.”

A native of Chottanikkara, Babu K, said, “ We have a deep faith in the temple rituals as we have seen people in a possessed state or under attack of some unseen power have been cured completely by the deity.”

The temple is governed by the Cochin Devaswom Board, where they are advertising the temple by selling video CD and distributing brochures explaining briefly about the temple history and methods opted by the priests to perform the rituals of exorcism.