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Standing on a large piece of open ground at the centre of Kodungallur, the ancient and typically Keralan Kurumba Bhagavati temple is the site of an extraordinary annual event that some residents would prefer didn't happen at all. The Bharani festival, held during the Malayalam month of Meenom (March/April), attracts droves of devotees, both male and female, mainly from "low caste" communities previously excluded from the temple. Their devotions consist in part of drinking copious amounts of alcohol and taking to the streets to sing Bharani pattu, sexually explicit songs about, and addressed to, goddess Bhagavati, which are considered to be obscene and highly offensive by many other Keralans. On Kavuthindal, the first day, the pilgrims run en masse around the perimeters of the temple three times at breakneck speed, beating its walls with sticks. Until the mid-1950s, chickens were sacrificed in front of the temple; today, a simple red cloth symbolizes the bloody ritual. An important section of the devotees are the crimson-clad village oracles, wielding scythe-like swords with which they sometimes beat themselves on the head in ecstatic fervor, often drawing blood. Despite widespread disapproval, the festival draws plenty of spectators. Cheraman Juma Masjid,1500m south of Kodungallur centre on NH-17, is thought to be the earliest mosque in India, founded in the seventh century. The present building, which dates from the sixteenth century, was until recently predominantly made of wood, of a style usually associated with Keralan Hindu temples. Unfortunately, due to weather damage, it has recently had to be partly rebuilt, and the facade, at least, is now rather mundane, with concrete minarets. The wooden interior remains intact, however, with a large Keralan oil lamp in the centre.
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ntroduced five centuries ago for group study of the Koran, the lamp has taken on great significance to other communities, and Muslims, Christians and Hindus alike bring oil for the lamp on the auspicious occasion of major family events. In an anteroom, a small mausoleum is said to be the burial place of Habib Bin Malik, an envoy sent from Mecca by the convert king Cheraman Perumal. Women are not allowed into the mosque at any time. The Mar Thoma Pontifical Shrine,fronted by a crescent of Neoclassical colonnades at Azhikode (pronounced "Arikode") Jetty (6km) marks the place where the Apostle Thomas is said to have arrived in India, soon after the death of Christ. Despite the ugly waterside promenade and the tacky visitors' centre, it is a moving spot, on the edge of the backwaters, but not worth a detour unless you're desperate to see the shard of the saint's wrist bone enshrined within the church.
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