Different from the benign ‘bhava’ of Lord Shiva at Vaikom Mahadeva Temple, Lord Shiva has a fierce face at Ettumanur temple. Though fierce the Lord is easily pleasing towards devotees and splendidly showers benediction. Location wise Ettumanur is at 11 km to the southeast of Kottayam town.
The temple has a circular sanctum covered with a conical copper plated roof crowned with a kalsam. The mukhamandapam in front of the temple bears two images of Nandi, one of stone and another of metal. like other temples in Kerala, the rear of the sanctum is revered as Parvati's shrine.
A rectangular circumambulatory passage surrounds the sanctum. The sanctum bears wood carvings of superior workmanship portraying legends from the Ramayana and the Bhagavata puranam.
The murals on the western entrance to the temple are awe inspiring especially that of the painting of the dance of Shiva.
There are also shrines to Saasta, Ganapati and Dakshinamurthy in the temple.
Festivals: The 10 day long festival in the malayala month of Kumbham is the temple's annual festival.
On the eigth day of the festival, the processional image of the deity is taken to a specially decorated site in the north east corner of the temple, when thousands throng to visit the shrine.
On this day, a unique treasure of the temple (offered by the Maharaja of Travancore) - the seven and a half elephants (ezhara pon aana) representing the eight dik paalakas or the guardians of the cardinal directions are displayed. Seven of these golden elephants are two feet in height while the eighth is a foot high.