Swords, spears, bows and arrows greet you when you enter this temple at Uppilipalayam, near here.

The temple is believed to be constructed some 300 years ago.

The main ritual of the temple is the puja conducted for weapons used during the period, probably to hunt, or to protect villagers.

About 75 years ago, an idol of Shiva was placed in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple alongside the weapons.

The temple complex, spread over 60 cents, itself is constructed in a way to hold gram sabha, and padashala (school).

It has facilities to deposit money collected by the village administration, a library, space for teaching youth to use weapons, an Ayurveda centre to treat snake poison, and a place to serve free meals for the poor too.

“The temple was called ‘Vel kottam’ in the earlier days before been renamed as ‘Paramasivan koil’ after the idol was placed,” said S. Ravikumar, an archaeologist who has made many a studies about ancient temples in the region.

The temple architecture resembles those situated in Kerala.

“This is because that those who were residing in the village, who originally were from Vellakoil, migrated to Palakkad for a brief period in search of livelihood. After returning, they built the temple to perform puja on weapons to attain prosperity. They might have copied the construction style in Kerala,” said K. Ponnusamy, a historian at the Virarajendran Historical Research Centre.

Even now during festivities, villagers display their skills on using swords and spears.

“Since the temple is not popular outside the region, there is not much crowd,” said S. Ramesh, the temple priest.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / R. Vimal Kumar / Tirupur – January 10th, 2015