Ambalapuzha Sreekrishna Temple

Amabalappuzha Sreekrishna Temple on the Kollam-Alappuzha Highway is called the Dwaraka of the South. It is frequented by thousands of devotees especially during the annual festival which falls in April every year. 'Ambalappuzha palpayasam' the devotional delicacy of the temple, is renowned for its unique taste.Ambalappuzha is also famous for the traditional visual martial art of Kerala, Velakali. The Sree Krishna Temple at Ambalapuzha, (15 km south of Alappuzha) Built in the typical Kerala architectural style, this temple is famous all over India for the Palpayasam, the daily offering of deliciously sweet milk porridge. It is also in the

Ambalpuzha Sree Krishna Temple that Pallipana is performed by Velans (sorcerers) once every twelve years. Paintings of the Dasavatharam (the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu) are on display on the inner walls of the ‘Chuttambalam’. Ottanthullal, a satiric art form originated by the poet Kunchan Nambiar, was first performed on the premises of this temple .Thullal a solo dance performance with high social relevance.

Legend of the Ambalappuzha Paal Payasam

According to the legend, Lord Krishna once appeared in the form of a sage in the court of the king who ruled the region and challenged him for a game of chess (or chaturanga). The king being a chess enthusiast himself gladly accepted the invitation. The prize had to be decided before the game and the king asked the sage to choose his prize in case he won. The sage told the king that he had a very modest claim and being a man of few material needs, all he wished was a few grains of rice. The amount of rice itself shall be determined using the chess-board in the following manner. One grain of rice shall be placed in the first square, two grains in the second square, four in the third square, eight in the fourth square and so on. Every square will have double the number of grains of its predecessor.

Upon hearing the demand, the king was unhappy since the sage requested only a few grains of rice instead of other riches from the kingdom which the king would have been happy to donate. He requested the sage to add other items to his prize but the sage declined.

So the game of chess started and needless to say the king lost the game. It was time to pay the sage his agreed-upon prize. As he started adding grains of rice to the chess board, the king soon realised the true nature of the sage's demands. By the 20th square, the number had reached one million grains of rice and by the 40th

square, it became one million million. The royal grainery soon ran out of grains of rice. The king realised that even if he provides all the rice in his kingdom and his adjacent kingdoms, he will never be able to fulfill the promised reward. The number

of grains was increasing as a geometric progression and the total amount of rice required to fill a 64-squared chess board is ((2^64) - 1) which is equal to the number 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 translating to trillions of tons of rice.

Upon seeing the dilemma, the sage appeared to the king in his true-form, that of lord Krishna. He told the King that he did not have to pay the debt immediately but could pay him over time. The king would serve paal-payasam (made of rice) in the temple freely to the pilgrims every day until the debt was paid off.