Karipuram Sree Krishnaswami Temple is believed to have a history of about a thousand years. According to legends, the temple initially belonged to a Tamil Brahmin family. Later, this family had to shift their residence to some other place because of certain adverse circumstances. As a local Brahmin family was unwilling to take over the temple, the famous paliam family at chendamangalam took up the responsibility of managing it and its properties. Paliam family, traditionally the family of Prime Ministers of the east while Cochin State, had many temples under their management.

As time went on, they lost interest in this small temple in a remote village. As a result, Karipuram temple gradually went into ruins. Only the ‘Sreekovil’ remained somewhat intact. In those days, the priest of the temples belonging to the nearby Vezhapparambu Mana, a well known ‘Tanthri’ famly, would go to Karipuram temple in the morning with some ‘Nivedyam’ and perform the minimum rites. The people around rarely went to the temple to pray. The neglected temple and the area around it became a convenient haven for antisocial activities. A large part of the land belonging to the temple was encroached.

Some years ago, a group of believers living near the temple formed a governing committee for the renovation of the temple.

In 1986, Karipuram Sree Krishnaswami Trust was duly registered and the trust took over the management of the temple from the Paliyam family.

The renovation work started under the guidance of Sri Narayan Namboodiripad, a member of Vezhapparambu Mana. In 1991, the governing committee formed by the trust conducted an ‘Ashtamangala Prasnam’ as the first step.

Following this, the construction of the temple, ‘Naveekarana Kalasam’, ‘Dhwaja prathishta’, construction of the ‘Oottupura’ and ‘Anapandal’ were done one by one. An annual temple festival started in 2003. Every year the festival is celebrated from 3rd of the malayalam month ‘Dhanu’ to 10th with all the rituals and attractive programmes like kathakali, dance, concerts etc. Besides this, there are special programmes like ‘Bhagavatha Sapthaham’, ‘Narayaneeya Sapthaham’, ‘Rohiniyoottu’ and ‘Prathishtadinam’ which attract a large number of devotees.

Karipuram temple has achieved the status of the ‘Grama Kshethram’ of our village.

Special Programmes and Offerings :

Karipuram is a temple without any secondary dieties(Upadevanmar)installed.

A special offering in this temple is ‘Balayoottu’ meant for having good offsprings. ‘Uriyadi’ competition was conducted during ‘Ashtami Rohini’ celebrations. Now, ‘Dasavatharam Chandhanamcharth’ which takes place once a year attracts a lot of devotees. ‘Palpayasa nivedyam’, ‘Kadalippazha nivedyam’ and Thrikkayyil Venna’ are some other important offerings.

Plans just completed and future plans :

The other development plans recently completed are the cleaning of the temple pond which is named ‘Krishnatheertham’, and covering the outer part of the ‘SreeKovil’ and the ‘Balikallu’ around it with brass. The floor around it has been laid with granite. Social activities such as financial help to poor people for medical treatment are being devised. There is a plan to help the Hindu families for the revival of the traditional rituals and practices which are now neglected.

Let us hope that Karipuram Temple will achieve the status of the cultural centre of the locality, extending help and co-operation to the hindus in all their activities.