Vadakkunnathan Temple

The history of the story is briefly narrated in Brahmanda Purana. The temple is said to have found by Parashurama. Parashurama exterminated Kshatyas twenty-one times. In order to expiate the sin, he performed a yajna at the end of which he gave away all his properties to Brahmins as Dakshina. He then required a land to continue his Tapasya. So, he requested Lord Varuna to give a new piece of land from the sea, the place where in the temple is built now. Another part of the history says that some sages approached him at the end of the yajna and requested him to give them a piece of land. Parashurama, then, requested Lord Varuna, the sea god, to give them the land they requested. Lord Varuna gave him a winnow and asked him to hurl it into the sea. As he did a large territory of land and thrown into the sea, the territory rose out of the sea, which is now called as Kerala.

The temple stands as a classic example of the Kerala Architectural style. The mural paintings of the temple depict the various episodes of the epic Mahabharata.