Royal Intervention in Temple and Controversy Over Lord’s Idol in Medieval Kerala

Kerala is located in the narrow strip of land on the south-west coast of India between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. The temple as an institutional base for socio-economic and political integration assumes great significance from the medieval period. The temple is historically more important as a social and economic entity than as a religious institution. Tirumala Devasom the biggest and most important socio-religious institution of Gowda Saraswat Brahmins of Kerala. The temple is situated at Cherlai in the heart of Mattancherry town in Cochin area which is one of the earliest settlements of Saraswat Brahmins in Kerala. The temple was established in the second half of the sixteenth century. The history of Saraswats in Kerala is inter-woven with that of this temple and its Venkateswara idol.