Chevalier Antony Tharakan
1880–1912
Ayurvedic physician to the Cochin royal family, papal knight and patron of Aranattukara's first English school
The Chiramel Tharakan family runs all through Aranattukara’s story, from the boat landing they once controlled to the school that still carries their name. Of all its members, Antony Tharakan is the one the book praises most.
Physician to the palace
The Tharakans were known for Ayurvedic medicine. Antony Tharakan was remembered as a master of ottamooli, remedies made from a single herb. According to the book, the Maharaja of Cochin gave him the title Vaidyaratnam (“jewel among physicians”) and the rank of Madampi (a landed chieftain). He also gave him a seat on the Durbar, the state’s governing council, where he was the only Christian member. One passage of the book gives these honours to an elder Antony Tharakan of the same family, so some of them may belong to him. Antony Tharakan is said to have treated the sick without taking money.
A family story shows how people saw him. Fishermen once left a pan of fish at the house, with their backs broken, under a few leafy twigs. When the cooks came, the fish were alive and jumping. The twigs, it turned out, came from a wound-healing herb. The story goes that the remedy joined the family’s collection of palm-leaf manuscripts.
Learning and honours
He cared about schooling. In 1905 he led the rebuilding of Aranattukara’s small English school, and the new building opened in 1907 as St. John’s School. In 1911 Pope Pius X made him a knight of the Order of St. Sylvester. The book notes that no one in the Thrissur diocese had received the honour before. That is why he is remembered as “Chevalier”.
He died in 1912, still in his early thirties, and was buried inside the old East Church near the main altar. His family’s house, with its thick sand-filled walls and its own chapel, keeps many reminders of his time. See Tharakan House.
Related
The Tharakan House
The ancestral home of the Chiramel Tharakan family near the old landing, with its thick walls, palm-leaf medical manuscripts and a remarkable collection of heirlooms.
Tharakan's School, Aranattukara
The parish school beside St. Thomas Church, which grew from a village writing school into Tharakan's High School and taught generations of Aranattukara children.
St. Thomas Church, Aranattukara
The parish church at the heart of Aranattukara, whose story runs from a first church in 1796, through a long division, to reunion in 1964 and the church we see today.
Aranattukara in 10 Minutes
The whole story of Aranattukara in one short read — from a landing on the edge of the kol wetlands to a busy ward of Thrissur city.
The Schools That Shaped Aranattukara
From village writing schools taught by Hindu teachers to Tharakan's School, the girls' high schools and St. Aloysius College at Elthuruth, this is how Aranattukara learned to read, and how its classrooms helped heal a divided parish.
Temples and Older Faiths
Long before the church bells, Aranattukara had its sacred groves, its kol paddy fields and its temples. This chapter looks at the land's older faiths, the Brahmin settlement of Thrissur, the temples of Lalur and Kizhakkeppuram, and the village healers.