Guruvayur Town
Guruvayur Town - Guruvayur (Guruvāyupuram), also written as Guruvayoor or Gurupavanapuri, is a municipal town in Thrissur District, of Kerala State in India. It houses the Guruvayur Sree Vishnu Temple, the fourth largest temple in India in terms of the number of devotees visiting per day. Guruvayur, according to the legends may be 5,000 years old as the Guruvayur temple idol is. There are no historical records to establish it. It is also believed that Lord Krishna, asked 2 sages to take the idol from his temple in Dwarka while the city was being destroyed and establish it in Kerala. The idol of Lord Krishna was brought by Vayu deva and brhaspathi and was placed in guruvayur. The name guruvayur is a merge of both their names (“guru” Brihaspati and “Vayu’ deva. In the 14th century, Tamil literature ‘Kokasandesam’, references about a place called Kuruvayur is made. As early as the 16th century, many references are seen about Kuruvayur. In ancient Dravidic, Kuruvai means sea, hence the village on the coast may be called Kuruvayur. According to eminent historian Professor K. V. Krishna Iyer, the Brahmins had begun to come and settle at Kodungallur during the period of Chandra Gupta Maurya (321-297 BC). Guruvayur was a subordinate shrine of Trikkunavay Shiva temple before the latter was destroyed by the Dutch in 1755. Trikkunavay in the Guruvayur documents is the same as Thrikkanamathilakam or Mathilakam mentioned in the Dutch and British records. And this place was in between Guruvayur and Kodungallur. The story of Pandyan King building a shrine here may be a reference to the Azhavars, but they are all silent in their writing about Guruvayur. It was Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri’s Narayaniyam through which the Guruvayur temple got famous all over India.Temple Town Of Kerala
As of the Indian census of 2001, This place had a population of 21,187. Males constitute 46% of the population and females 54%. Guruvayur has an average literacy rate of 85%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 86%, and female literacy is 85%. In Guruvayoor, 10% of the population is under 10 years of age.Road
This place can be accessed from Kochi city by National Highway NH 66, which starts from Edapally in Kochi and interchange from Chavakkad. Guruvayur can be accessed from Thrissur city by state highway 49, which starts from Guruvayur and ends in state highway 69 at choondal. Guruvayur can be accessed from Kozhikkode city by Chamravattom, interchange from Chavakkad. From the city, there are regular private and State-owned Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses. There is a private and a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bus stand in this place which run inter-state, inter-district and city services. There is a good frequency of buses from Palakkad, Calicut also.Railway
The main rail transport system in this place is operated by the Southern Railway Zone of Indian Railways. Here Railway Station lies in the Thrissur-Guruvayur Section. It is the last station in this section. There are two passenger trains operating from GUV Railway Station to Ernakulam Junction and another two passenger trains to Thrissur Railway Station every day. An overnight express train to Chennai Egmore via Ernakulam Junction, Kollam Junction, Thiruvananthapuram, Madurai, Trichy is also running from this Railway Station every day. Thrissur Railway Station is the major railhead near to this place from where you can get all South Indian and North Indian trains.Air
Cochin International Airport is the nearest airport, which is 87 km from this place. All international, domestic and chartered flights are available here. Calicut International Airport at Karipur is about 100 km away.
