Kerala was truly a “God’s own country” even before the government department started putting it as a catchline in their tourism promotion. Its rich, varied, and distinct places of worship which pan across the length and breadth of this small state would put anybody into a state of wondrous excitement.

As the puranic lore calls this place as Bhargvakshetram or the divine land created by Bhargavarama or Parasurama     ( 6th avatar of Mahavishnu), where he reclaimed the land from the sea by throwing his axe from Gokarna. Though the current political map sketch Kerala from Trivandrum to Kasargode, there was a time it was considered from Gokarna ( in Karnataka coastal belt) to Parassala.

The history of temples and their evolution in Kerala is worth studying. The earliest forms are definitely Kaavu or the grove, with a simple stone kept beneath the tree and worshipped as Primeval mother or in a larger sense the mother nature. it was an extension or a miniature of the forest from where the early inhabitants migrated. They brought in a slice of their earlier existence to the newer pastures and set up these groves. The forms of worship were simple, balis or sacrifice to pacify the deity were common and the entire area considered sacrilegious. As the generations went by, small structures started building up around the kaavu and the slow transformation of these groves into an elaborate temple structure of what we see now started. Kerala also witnessed settlements of Jain and Buddhist followers during the early centuries in AD. Some of the chatras or prayer halls also later got converted to temples.

One of the biggest breakthroughs in Hinduism was from the times of Adi Shankaracharya; Bhakti Movement. The political revival of Cheras in the ninth century coupled with this Bhakti movement provided a great fillip to the building of temples. The profitable external trade which brought in economic stability helped to curb the considerable expenditure for these structural activities.

Politically Kerala never remained united, there was a multitude of chieftains, some small kingdoms scattered, this absence of any strong dynastical influence introduced a unifying trend in the pattern of Kerala temple architecture based on the codified principles of Vastu shastra and Stapathis. At the same time, it was never a development in isolation, the Pallavas, Hoysala, Chalukyas or the other neighboring styles must have influenced Kerala temple architecture.

The idea of naalambalam in the temples of Kerala, which may be distantly related to the quadrangle monastery or houses with a central courtyard is comparable to te naalukettu or the traditional domestic houses consisting of four sections of rooms arranged around a central open courtyard.

Kerala also produced a few Vastu Shastra treatises like tantrasmuchya by Narayanan(15 C) and silparatna by Sri Kumara in the 16t century. Both these texts were on the temple architecture, which indicates the level of probe and exploration which went into its development. Laterite the most commonly available stone in Kerala was used for the majority of the temple constructions, which were quarried and then dehydrated to make it harder. Apart from Laterite, timber, also easily available building material, is used extensively in temple construction.

The tantric pooja practice also revived from its ancient ways, where shastras, agamas were assimilated along with various text like Kurikkatu Pacha, Kriya Deepika and many defined it.
In the later stages, these temples stood as a breeding ground for various cultural art forms which were patronized by the royals and perfected by the daunting rasikas, while performed as part of festivals in these temples.