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The unassuming village of VIZHINJAM (pronounced Virinyam), on the opposite (south) side of the headland from Lighthouse beach, was once the capital of the Ay kings, the earliest dynasty in south Kerala. During the ninth century the Pandyans intermittently took control, and it was the scene of major Chola-Chera battles in the eleventh century. A number of small simple shrines survive from those times, and can be made the focus of a pleasant afternoon's stroll along shady paths through coconut groves. They're best approached from the village centre, beyond a fishing community, rather than via the coast road. However, if you do walk along the coast road from Kovalam to the north side of Vizhinjam, you can't fail to be struck by the contrast; from the conspicuous consumption of a tourist resort you find yourself in a poor fishing village. A huge modern pink mosque on the promontory overlooks a bay of tightly packed thatched huts.
On the far side of the fishing bay in the village centre, 50m down a
road opposite the police station, a small unfinished eighth-century
rock shrine features a carved figure of Shiva with a weapon. The
Tali Shiva temple, reached by a narrow path from behind the
government primary school, may mark the original centre of Vizhinjam.
The simple shrine is accompanied by a group of naga snake statues, a
reminder of Kerala's continuing cult of snake worship that survives
from pre-brahminical times. |
The grove known as Kovil Kadu ("temple forest") lies near the sea, ten minutes' walk from the main road in the village along Hidyatnagara Road. Here a small enclosure contains a square Shiva shrine and a rectangular one dedicated to the goddess Bhagavati. Thought to date from the ninth century, these are probably the earliest structural temples in Kerala, although the Bhagavati shrine has been renovated.
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