Antiquity and deities

Antiquity of the temples of Malappuram district cannot be determined in terms of age of the idol or structures of the temple. The antiquity of each temple may, therefore, be decided based on legend or history. However, the Department of Census, Government of India identified 38 temples of the district as very ancient having more than two thousand years of age.  199 temples were constructed between 1st and 9th Century AD. Between 10th and 20th Century AD, 856 temples have been constructed. The department could not ascertain the antiquity of 28 temples. 

The deities of the district are mainly Goddess Bhadrakali or Bhagavathy, Lord Vishnu, Lord Siva, Lord Ganapathy, Lord Subramanya, Lord Sastha etc based on various kalpa or sankalpa (concept). Combination of sankalpa such as Sankara-Narayana, Uma-Maheswara, Lakshmy-Narayana, Siva-Parvathy etc are also there. Number of temples based on various sankalpa is given below: