Temples and Older Faiths

Aranattukara is often described as a Christian village, and for the last two centuries that has been true. But the land is older than any church. Its groves, wetlands and temples carry memories of faiths that were here first, and of the Hindu neighbours who have lived beside the parish all along. This chapter gathers what the book records about them. It is the thinnest part of the record, and we hope temple committees and families will help fill it in.

A Nambudiri village?

Some local histories describe Aranattukara as a former settlement of Nambudiris (Kerala’s Vedic Brahmins). V.V.K. Valath mentions a Nedungattu illam (Nambudiri house) here that died out long ago, its property passing to the Kokkalathuruthi illam and then to Chelur Nambudiri. A palm-leaf record of Kollam Era 994 (about 1819) is said to confirm the first of these transfers.

Joy Chiramel is not convinced. He points out that no illam names survive in Aranattukara’s oral or written memory, while the names of local chieftains (Karthas) and temple estates turn up again and again in old land deeds. A large Brahmin settlement, he argues, would also have had a major Vishnu or Shiva temple, and Aranattukara has none. His suggestion is that the land was mostly temple property, managed from the Vadakkunnathan temple in Thrissur, rather than a village where Nambudiri families lived. Both views are worth keeping in mind.

The kavu

What Aranattukara does have is a kavu: a sacred grove shrine. Long before temples had walls and tiled roofs, the village goddess was worshipped under a tree in the open, and the tree itself was honoured. Many of Kerala’s oldest shrines began this way, and the word survives in their names. Among the shrines that take part in the Thrissur Pooram are Lalurkavu, Paramekkavu, Chembukkavu, Ayyanthole Kavu and others.

The kavu was more than a place of worship. Its forecourt was the village meeting ground, where the local chief sat and the oracle (velichappadu) spoke for the goddess. Larger households kept their own sarpakkavu (serpent grove), where a lamp was lit before a serpent stone. Scholars quoted in the book see the mother goddess and the serpent as part of Kerala’s oldest, pre-Brahmin religious life.

The granary of the kol fields

The book also calls Aranattukara the pathayappura, or granary, of the kol (low-lying paddy wetlands). For centuries the kol lands gave only one crop a year, grown from December to April. From June to November they lay flooded like a backwater, and the rotting weeds made the soil rich. Because the fields lie below sea level, bunds had to hold back the salt water before every planting. Later works such as the Enamavu bund, the Karanchira lock and the Kottan Kottu Valavu regulator made farming easier.

An earth bund between paddy and a channel in the kol wetlands near Thrissur. Bunds like this kept out salt water and carried the footpath to Elthuruth. Photo: Gannu03 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Here the faiths meet on the land itself. Title deeds show that the fields around the Elthuruth ashram once belonged to a Variyam (a temple-servant family) and were later given to the ashram. Local hearsay adds that much of the ashram’s land came from the Cherukunnathu Mana, a Nambudiri household, after one of its sons became a friend of St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara.

The Thrissur gramam: power and decline

Lalur, on the south-western edge of Thrissur and part of Aranattukara, lies close to the old Brahmin gramam (settlement) of Thrissur. The book summarises historians who date the main Nambudiri arrival in Kerala to around the eighth century. Legend says Parasurama brought a Brahmin family with eight sons from the Krishna river and settled them at Padinjarechira to run the Vadakkunnathan temple.

Their council, the Yogam, led by the Yogathiripad, grew so powerful that at times it rivalled the king. Its members drew their income from Kochi but often sided with the Zamorin of Kozhikode, Kochi’s great rival. Puthezhath Raman Menon tells of one wealthy Nambudiri who entertained Sakthan Thampuran with dishes served in gold, then threw the golden vessels away, as a silent challenge to the king. Once Sakthan Thampuran had the upper hand, he brought the Vadakkunnathan temple under the state. The Yogam lost its hold, the last Yogathiripad left Thrissur, and the great illams faded away.

Even the name Lalur has two stories. Some derive it from Yagur, “land of Vedic sacrifices”. The book prefers Nagur, “land of serpents”, since Lalur was once thick bamboo scrub, full of cobras.

The temples of Aranattukara today

The Lalur Karthyayani Temple is Aranattukara’s old kavu, beside the road to the John Matthai Centre. Its goddess is Karthyayani, the gentle form of the Divine Mother. The temple is run by the Cochin Devaswom Board and is believed to be one of the 108 Durga temples founded by Parasurama. On Pooram day the goddess goes out with three elephants, morning and evening, to pay homage to Vadakkunnathan, as one of the eight cherupoorams (smaller processions) that make up the festival. The land is said to have been given by the Mannath family.

The Lalur Subrahmanya Temple stands in Mathaipuram Colony, north of Lalur Centre. The colony was set up through the interest of John Mathai as a home for Dalit (then called Harijan) families, and the temple, with a community hall beside it, is their place of worship.

The Kizhakkeppuram Ayyappa Temple is the youngest, built by local people in 1987, with Sastha as its deity.

Nearby, at Pattalangadi, the Sree Narayana Samajam keeps a Tattvavicharasabha (a hall for philosophical study).

Healers of every kind

Faith and healing were close neighbours. Chevalier Antony Tharakan earned the title Vaidyaratnam (jewel among physicians) from the Cochin court for his ottamooli (single-herb remedies), whose palm-leaf records are kept in his family house. A favourite story tells how fish with broken backs, covered with a wound-healing herb to keep off crows, came back to life in the kitchen.

Snakebite was common in the bamboo thickets, and Ouseph Vaidyan of Peringottukara was the poison-healer people carried their bitten relatives to, often at night. The book also remembers the Velan healers, who used herbs, chants and healing breath, and the midwives of that community who delivered most of the village’s babies.

Sources

Joy Chiramel, Arranadu – Aranadu – Orunadu (2024), ch. 3, ch. 7 and ch. 12
V.V.K. Valath, Keralathile Sthalacharithrangal: Thrissur Jilla (as cited in Chiramel, ch. 3 and ch. 12)
Puthezhath Raman Menon, Thrissur – Trichur (as cited in Chiramel, ch. 12)