The temple ruins are located at Vaniyannur in Cheriyamundam Panchayat in Tirur, Malappuram district of Kerala.

As per the villagers the temple is believed to be atleast 1000 years old and was ransacked during the Mysorean invasion of Kerala. It was destroyed completely during the riots of 1921 and has been lying in disuse, ruins and abandoned since then.

The temple revival started on 11 Jan 2018 with Swamy Bharati Maharaj of Bhuvaneswari Ashram lighting the lamp and restarting the Poojas.

The temple was vandalised the same night by unknown persons, but devotees of the locality made sure that worship was not affected at temple site.

The reconstruction of the temple started with site clearance work. The foundation stones, the sanctum sanctoriums of the temple were found during the excavation.

First a temporary office cum store room was constructed in the temple site. This enables the safe keep of Pooja items as well as construction tools.

The ritual marking the reconstruction, the DevaPrashnam and Ganapati Homam was conducted on 5 Feb 2018.

Keshavan Acharyan, a renowned temple architect has been entrusted the task of designing the new temple imbibing the old. The Sthapathi, temple architect predicted that idols could be recovered from well. Also it was advised to start the clearing works of the well as water was needed for construction work and for further use during temple rituals.

The excavation of the well was a hard task as the person had to make sure that they don't damage any idols which was to be recovered from the well. Also huge stones and temple pillars were being found in the well. Some of them weighing few tons were difficult to be taken out using manual labour. And at many such instances the excavation process slowed as devotees found difficult to remove the stones from well. Ultimately crane had to be brought to take out the huge stones.

And as the temple architect had predicted, an idol of Goddess was recovered from the well. The idol from its characters belonged to the Chola era and the character was that of a benevolent Goddess. The recovery of the Goddess idol has necessitated a change in the temple architecture, as now the architect has to design a sanctum for the Goddess as well in addition to Lord Shiva, as per Tantrashastra.

It was also decided to complete excavation till bedrock of the well, in hope that more such idols will be discovered. The excavation of the well is almost complete and next stage is the construction of the temporary abodes (called Balalayams) for Lord Shiva and the Goddess.

The estimated cost of reconstruction of the temple is Rs. 20 lakhs, of which we have already spent Rs. 1.7 lakhs towards the site clearance works, excavation, rituals, excavation of temple well and reinforcing the same as well as volunteer expenses.

The people of the locality have been employed in the temple jobs and the reconstruction of their heritage site is bringing tremendous positivism in their life.

This temple is part of the #ReclaimTemples project in Malappuram Kerala to rebuild 300 ancient Hindu Heritage temples that are lying in ruins for decades and centuries. We believe the project will strengthen the society and along with their social, economic and cultural prosperity.

For direct donation:

Name: UgraNarasimha Charitable Trust

Bank: Canara Bank

Branch: Thondayad Branch, Kozhikode City Kerala

Acct: 6300101000705

IFSC: CNRB0006300