In the original myth of the celebration, the worshipping deity was Bhadra kali, but the low caste people who come from far off places refer to the goddess Bhadra kali and address her lovingly in most colloquial langauage , Thalla [ mother].The high caste peoples are used the malayalam word Amma [ mother].

In all of the sacred groves of the low castes, priests from the respective casts performing the ceremonies and officiating at the sacred rituals.Slowly , the high castes introduced their priests and took over the temple celebrations.The high caste priest begings with performing only some of the poojas of the newly introduced high caste deities and slowly , they take over the entire temple and celebrations.

The low caste worship places were open areas, and the deities were installed on a small platform often inside a grove.Kerala earlier had thousands of such sacred groves that were destroyed either by modern culture or by sanskritisation.The sacred groves were sanskritised by building temples on the model of high caste temples over the original installation of the deity on the platform.Often the groves themselves were destroyed to build temples and square shaped buildings called nalukettu around the temples.

A low caste person will have a right in the key annual celebrations of the temple, such as performing rites for the flag ceremony or performing the first pooja to begin the celebrations of the temple or lightining the first lamp on the veve of the celebrations or holding the lamp in front of the procession tec.

In kodungallur temple numerous castes that have direct involvement in the ritual celebrations , nairs, palakavelan, pulayan, chaliyas, vallovan, aryan and several other casts.The adikal are the officiating priests.Brahmins have only a nominal duty outside the temple for vechunivathiyam.

Kaavu theendal another important event of the kodungallur festival .This time hundreds of oracles rush to the temple and move around the temple .They throw cocks and coconuts over the inner quadrangle .

Traditionally the temple has been associated with a lot of animal sacrifices.These customs have been done away within the 20 th century.The blood of the sacrificed used to be spilled over two stones in the temple and as mentioned above, this practice is now stopped.

The bharani festival normally starts with the ritual called '' kozhikallu moodal'' which invovles the sacrifice of cocks and shedding of their blood which forms an important feature of this temple. The members of the kodungallur bhagavathi temple are allowed to participate in this ritual.It is also appease the goddess kali and her demons who take delight in offering blood.

Groups of folk peoples in families , clans and from specific areas were coming like wave spontaneously singing sexual, mucky songs & dancing some in a trance, others in a dazed state.

An annual 'lawless situation' for one day or a certain number of days for ritually or socially free expression of pent up emotions is conducted in every culture , nation , for example April fool day, valentine's day etc.The kodungallur bharani festival which was traditionally celebrated by the low caste peoples.In this day devotees are come together to sing sexually obnoxious songs with their families or clans to celebrate the lawless situation and to go into a trance to relax themselves emotionally.

Most of the mens are drunk and different from ordinary aggressive alcoholics, they had reached an emotional peak almost in the state of a trance.Though the women were not drunk with liqour , they were drunk with devotion to the goddess Bhadrakali and the emotional state of both men & women was of the same plane.

The participants in the celebrations are known as Bharanikar .Those who come from south are known as Thekkar and those who come from north are known as Vadakkar .Within the temple , the devotees address themselves as Mooppan .On the revathy day that the lowerr caste people from all over kerala 7 tamil nadu come to worship the goddess .

The devotees belive that Devi will protect them from theirmisfortunes that arise out of enmity, evil spirits and from all dangers in life.The emotions of fear, devotion, hatred, jubiliation are displayed by the devotees as they march towards entrance.In fact, it is a celebration of total emotions, and the devotees uninhabitingly indulge in it in the presence of Kodungallur amma.

Devotees come for the bharani in groups wearing red clothes with a sword and wearing Aramani [ small bells tied to the waist] and Chilanka [ a leg ornament that makes a sound while walking ] in a devotional trance rhythmically running and jumping and melodiously yelling and shouting ''Devi sharanam''.They march as if they were going to a battle field.The continous flow of such large and small groups to the temple from far off places is a rare sight in temple celebrations.

The brahmins have no rights in this temple , the officiating priests in the temple are known as Adikal, who are outcaste Brahmins.

The most important and the most famous is the Bharani festival.Though the celebration is simple , thousands come from all over the states of kerala & tamil nadu.The meena bharani celebration lasts more than a month, from the Bharani of the month March.On the day of kumbha , bharani begings the celebration with flag hosting.

Covering of Kozhikallu , which is the beginning of the high celebration, is on the day of Thiruvonam in the month of meenam.The celebration reaches its peak on the three days of Revathi, Aswathi & Bharani.On revathi , the important ritual is seeing the Revathi lamp , and on Aswathi, it is the ritual of Thrichambaracharthu.On the day of Bharani is the famous ritual of Kavu theendal.After this ritual , the nada [ entrance] is closed and it will opened only on the pooyam after seven days with this , the celebration comes to an end.

The kurumba bhagavathy temple have actually dedicated to Kannaki .The image of bhagavathi is believed to have been carved out of a jack fruit tree.The face of the image is covered with a mask and the image is decorated with several pieces of jewellery.

Kodungallur sree kurumba bhagavathy temple plays an important role in the history of kerala. The kodungallur temple is one of the four Devi temples which Bhargava raman is said to have installed at the four boundaries of kerala. The popular belief is that in order to save the devotees from the epidemic of chicken pox the Lokambika was installed in the kodungallur temple by Bhargava raman.

The place kodungallur is mentioned as Muchiri in early Tamil literature, mainly in sangam krithikal .Muchiri or kodungallur was once the capital of the Chera dynasty during the sangam age.

To the greeks & romans , this place was known as Muziris .It is believed that the name Muziris is derived from the anicient temple here , dedicated to masuri devatha , a goddess having immense power to heal small pox.

The temple is believed to have built by the Cheran Chenkuttavan , one of the legendary king of the chera dynasty.