Places · Landmark
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.
Photo: aranattukara.org, 2026 · All rights reserved
The Chiramel Tharakan family, the first Syrian Catholic family to settle in Aranattukara according to the book, lived close to the kadavu (boat landing). Their tharavadu (ancestral home) still stands as one of the most important landmarks of the area’s past.
Close to the water
The family took its title from service to the Cochin kings, and for a long time the Tharakan controlled the buying and selling at the landing. Boat steps once led from the water to the family’s houses; the book notes that these landings have all been cut off.
Inside the house
The book gives a rich picture of the old drawing room. Its double wall, about thirty-two inches thick, is filled with sand, a defence against the torch-carrying robber gangs known as theevetti: break through it and only sand pours out. The book lists crystal lamps, a grain chest about twelve feet long hollowed from a single log, plates with a hollow for hot water to keep food warm, doors with secret catches, the robe of Antony Tharakan’s papal knighthood, a Pietà painted with leaf dyes, and palm-leaf manuscripts of ottamooli (single-herb remedies) from the family’s long tradition of Ayurvedic medicine.
The family also had its own house chapel, which the book describes as a rare privilege granted by the Pope. That chapel has since been taken down, but many of its statues and fittings survive.
Please note
This is a private family home, not a museum. Please view it only from the road unless the family invites you in.
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