Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

3031 sites15 countries4 traditions30 centuries
Early medieval · Hindu · India

Kallil Temple

Methala, Perumbavoor, Kerala · 10.0639°, 76.5454°

Bhagavathi (the Jain yakshi Padmavati)UndeterminedRock-cut cave shrine
Sacred since
800 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
9th c.
Undetermined

History & significance

A shrine cut into a huge rock at Methala near Perumbavoor, originally Jain and turned into a Bhagavathi temple in the ninth century, with rock-carved images of the Tirthankaras Parshvanatha and Mahavira alongside Padmavati. Reached by sixty-nine steps and roofed by a single vast boulder, it is a protected monument of the Kerala State Department of Archaeology.

Sthala katha — the traditional account

What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.

A woman of great beauty is said to have been seen playing with stones in the forest and to have vanished into the cave with them, the stone she tossed up becoming the roof of the shrine.

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Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Undetermined