Pandavan Para

A km from Chengannur town (in Alappuzha district), Pandavanpara is shrouded in myth and mystery. It is believed to have been one of the hideouts of the Pandavas during their days in exile.  

Pandavanpara has a temple at the hilltop dedicated to the Pandavas with Krishna as the presiding deity. Devotees trudge down newly installed steps and have to climb barefooted.

Behind the temple, there are three rocks  which show the lotus in various stages of bloom — the first a bud, the second in half-bloom, and the third in full bloom.

There is the thavalapara (a rock shaped like a frog with its mouth open), the maddalapara (a rock that produces a musical reverberation like the wooden drummaddalam), a rock where Bhima reclined and is etched in the shape of his giant body, and another that was his chair. Not to be missed are his giant footprints and his vettilachellam (carry-case for betel leaves and arecanut). Ajeesh then points out a rock called niravarakuzhi, which he explains has five seats for each of the five Pandava princes. The temple is dedicated to the princes, though not to their wife Draupadi who accompanied them during their days in hiding. Interestingly, there are temples dedicated to each of the Pandava princes in the surrounding regions — at Thrichittat for Yuddhishtra, at Tiruppuliyoor for Bheema, at Thiruvaranmula for Arjuna, at Tiruvanvandoor for Nakula and Thrikkodithanam for Sahadeva.