Pilgrimage

Valliyoorkavu

The Valliyoorkavu Bhagavathy Temple, located near Mananthavady in Wayanad district is dedicated to Goddess Bhagavathy. Worshipped in three of principal forms of Goddess- Vana Durga, Bhadrakali and Jala Durga, the temple is famous for the annual 14-day festival. The festival falls in the Malayalam month of Meenam (From 1-14).   
The sword of Valliyooramma will be brought from the Palliyara Bhagavathy temple at Pandikkadavu near Mananthavady by the chief priest on the first day, which marks the beginning of the festival. Here the kodiyettu (ceremonial flag hoisting) is performed only on the seventh day of the festival by tribal chieftains



Thirunelli Temple

Thirunelli Temple is an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Maha Vishnu on the side of Brahmagiri hill in Kerala, near the border with Karnataka state. The temple is at an altitude of about 900m in north Wayanad in a valley surrounded by mountains and beautiful forests. It is 32 km away from Manathavady.
No proper records of the exact dates of establishment of temple exist, though it is beyond dispute, that Thirunelli was once an important town and pilgrim center in the middle of an inaccessible jungle valley surrounded by mountains on four sides . There exists documentary proof that Thirunelli at the time of Tamil Chera king Bhaskara Ravi Varma I (962–1019 CE) was an important town and pilgrim center in South India. In the dense jungles surrounding temple, the ruins of two ancient villages can be found. Noted historian V. R. Parameswaran Pillai in his book Thirunelli Documents states that this temple was once an integral part of the early recorded history of Kerala