Vettakkorumakan, the son born for the hunt, is a hunter-god of Kerala, worshipped principally in the northern and central parts of the state. Tradition makes him the son of Shiva and Parvati conceived while they wandered the forests in their hunter forms, the guise Shiva assumed in the Kiratarjuniya episode, when he tested Arjuna as a mountain hunter. The son of that wild sojourn is a youthful, exuberant deity of the bow, at home in the hills and groves of Malabar.
The tradition
He is depicted as a young hunter bearing weapons of the chase, and local tradition delights in his boisterous, quick-tempered energy, which his rites are designed to honour and to soothe. He is worshipped both in temples of his own and as a powerful subsidiary deity in the shrines of other gods, and several old houses and temples of Malabar maintain him as a guardian of the family line.
Worship
His characteristic rite is the kalampattu, in which his figure is drawn on the floor in coloured powders, kalamezhuthu, and honoured with lamps and song before the drawing is effaced, a form of worship Kerala reserves for its most powerful indigenous deities. The Vettakkorumakan temple at Nilambur in Malappuram district is among his best-known seats, celebrated for its annual Nilambur Pattu festival, and in north Malabar he is also embodied in Theyyam.
Further reading
- Bhattacharyya, N. N. History of the Sakta Religion. Munshiram Manoharlal, 1996
- Erndl, Kathleen M. Victory to the Mother: The Hindu Goddess of Northwest India. Oxford University Press, 1993
- Kinsley, David. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine. University of California Press, 1986
- Kinsley, David. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas. University of California Press, 1997
- Sircar, D. C. The Sakta Pithas. Motilal Banarsidass, 1973
See also
This entry was last revised on 31 July 2026.