Kudallur: Guruthi for Kodikkunnath Bhagawati performed

Guruthi pooja is a pooja where the ‘guruthi’ is offered to the Goddess. Guruthi represents blood and blood symbolizes vitality. So guruthi pooja is where you offer the vitality to the Goddess (citation from www.shripuram.org). Desa Guruthi is a kind of Guruthi pooja in which the vitality is offered to deity on behalf of a Desam (village or place).

The last Desa Guruthi to Sri Kodikkunnath Bhagawati, the goddess of the Kudallur village was performed at Kudallur on 2nd April 2010, Friday (1185 Meenam 19). The rituals of Guruthi were conducted at Guruthi Paramb nead Kudallur Sri Vazhakavu Durga Bhagawati temple. Kuttan Adikal, one of the known performers of religious rituals like Guruthi led the programme.

The rituals started at 6.00am at Vazhakavu Durga Bhagawati temple with Ganapati homam. This was followed by Usha pooja, Navakom and Niramala. Koorayidal (the flag hoisting) was at 11.00am. At noon Ucha pooja was conducted followed by Bhagawatippaatt and Kalam pooja. Then was the time for Ezhunnellipp, the colourful and devotional possession. It was started from old Guruthi paramb to the new one. Three elephants (Kootanad Rajasekharan carrying the thidamb, Madhusankar and Sivan) were the part of possession. Poothan and Thira, Kalavela and the like made the possession a spectacular one.

Panchavadyam led by Kalamandalam Annamanada Parameswara Maraar, Pariyarath Chandra Maraar, Pallassana Murali, Nalleppilly Kuttan, Kalamandalam Kuttinarayanan , Thrippunithura Sasi and the like gave the village a musical treat filled with devotion.

Melam, another musical treat for the goddess was performed in the evening, at 5.00pm. 6.30- Deeparadhana, 7.00-Ashtapathi, 7.30- Thayambaka (by Guruvayur Sasi Maraar), 9.00- Keli (Chenda: Kottakkal Ravi, Madhalam: Kayilad Babu), 10.00- Bhagawatippattu were also held. At around 10.30pm Purath Ezhunnellipp began. Panchavadyam and, Girls and women with thalams accompanied the possession and rounded Vazhakavu Temple.

At midnight the most important part of Desaguruthi wad done with great piety. Guruthi pooja was performed first. Then the scholar led the ritual of sacrificing a goat, and offered the blood to Sri Kodikkunnath Bhagawati. This ritual is called Tharppanam.

In the wee hours of the next day Vadakkan Vathukkal Karmam and Thendu theendal was also done. The day night long rituals came to an end when Koora Valikal (flag lowering) was done at around 3.00am.

Sri Kodikkunnath Bhagawati is believed to be the goddess of Kudallur, by the Hindus at Kudallur. She protects the village from famine, drought and epidemics, according to their belief.

Kudallur: First Ayurvedic Hospital Comes Soon

Kudallur gets her first hospital in the valley of Thannikkunnu. The famous ‘thriphala’ family is behind this prestigious venture, which is rightly led by the known Ayurvedic physician Dr. Hurair Kutty. The ‘thriphala’ family, the real name of which is Pallimanjayalil is famous for their tradition of service to the society. The family got the legacy of Ayurvedic service from the daughter in law Thitheemu Umma, who was the member of well known Kattipparuthy ancestry of Valanchery. As she was the knot of a glorious tradition, her presence became a blessing to the village of Kudallur. Thitheemu Umma served the village by giving her loving care to the needy people, especially the children. She had an in-depth knowledge of the treatment for various diseases. The effectiveness of her treatment made her a known healer in the region and the Pallimanjayalil family became famous for the Ayurvedic treatment it provides. Thitheemu Umma was married to P.K.Abdullakutty Sahib, a freedom fighter. Dr. Hurair Kutty is their son and the current leader of the rich tradition. Dr.Shiyas and Dr.Niyas, sons of Hurair Kutty are the new torch bearers in the family. Their young sisters Nishitha and Manhath are also Ayurveda doctors now.
The foundation stone for Thitheemu Umma Memorial Ayurvedic Hospital and Research Centre was laid on 3rd January 2010 at 9.30 am by Paloly Mohammed Kutty, Minister for Local Administration. Panakkad Sayed Rasheed Ali Shihab Thangal, M.P.Abdu Samad Samadani (Ex.M.P.), T.P.Kunchunni (M.L.A, Thrithala), C.P.Mohammed(M.L.A., Pattambi) and many other important personalities attended the function. Newly formed P.K.Abdullakutty Sahib Memorial Trust controls the activities of the hospital.

Kudallur: New Masjid Opened

The old masjid, we talked about in the previous post, has been reconstructed and opened for the believers. The inauguration ceremony was held on 2009 May 28. It took one and 20 months to complete the construction of the new building. The masjid’s inner part is decorated with costly tiles and synthetic mats. It has enough room for the believers to assemble and pray.

Where did we loss ourselves?

Kutteem kolum- have you heard about it? Leave it; what about Vattukali? No?

Here a group of kids are recollecting their experiences and sharing their dreams about a world where they can at least smile with pleasure. Children of G.U.P.School Kudallur published a small book, Kutteem kolum to share their cheer. Reading the book, your eyes will get wet with a lot of memories you have lost in the hectic schedule to follow and to live.

Students of these times have become truly elders. Their characters show it. They speak about big things rather than about a butterfly or jasmine flower. They play serious games and they do not have time to spend for others. Simply speaking, they have been made scapegoats of fast changing world of business. Everything is valued based on its monetary value.

Reading the book, we may try to become just kids for some time.

Vidyarangam Kalavedi Group of GUPS worked behind Kutteem Kolum, with the help of Mahboob Kudallur, their teacher and a young journalist.

They have created a blog: www.kutteemkolum.blogspot.com

This was the second publication from the school which attracted the attention of readers.

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Kudallurinte Ormapusthakam

All about Kudallur- thats the best description this book can ever have, because each and evey page of this book says something deep and amazing on Kudallur. Like the name suggests, its a look back to the ways through which Kudallur came through. And also remembering the great icons whose achievements and efforts were precious to the village. Social, cultural, natural and historic aspects of the village are well covered in this book. The book is released as a part of Government U.P.School Silver Jubilee Celebrations.

The major highlight of the book is N.M.Namboodiri's study on Kudallur. He describes the formation of Kudallur. His attempt reveals the historic progression of lot of villages including Kudallur, better called 'Vayyavinaadu'. The article 'Ee Manohara Theerath', written by Achuthan Kudallur brings back his childhood memories in Kudallur. Alankod Leelakrishnan, express his views on Kudallur through the article 'Amaranmarude Gramathil' which focuses on how M.T. books and Kudallur is closely related. He calls Kudallur, a village where the people lives through stories and memories. His article also goes deep through myths connected to the village.

Kudallur's own writer Vaseerali Kudallur also comes up with his memories on the village. 'Oru Kudallur Veeragadha', a walk to Madath Thekkepattu house by T.V.M. Ali brings out more on Kudallur's illustious son writer M.T.Vasudevan Nair and his home. M.T. Ravindran also appears with his words on Madath Thekkepattu house. M.T.N.Nair, brother of M.T.Vasudevan Nair translates a Khaleel Gibran story named 'Perunnal Thalennu'.

P.Surendran makes a close watch and study on Achuthan Kudallur's paintings and explains what makes Achuthan Kudallur different in the artistic world. Dr.Rajan Chungath enters the world of 'Parayipetta Panthirukulam' and presents the readers more details about Thrithala.

The book also takes a look onto the folklore of the village. Mehaboob Kudallur brings out various heard and unheard stories on myths connected to the village. Study on artistic tradition of Kudallur by M.Shivashankaran and feature on traditional arts and festivals by M.Suresh Babu adds more to the folklore. An article on Kudallur's famous game 'Pakidakali' described by Balettan, gives a brief idea on the rules and styles of the game.

The book had succeeded in extracting Kudallur life to a great extent. It does a deep study on Kudallur's diversity in flora and fauna. Butterflies seen on the banks of Nila, birds, fishes and more adds a different dimension to the book. Progression of Nila, agricultural background, surrounding ranges of hills and various water resources are the distinct subjects that comes in between the pages. More interesting facts on roads, buses, electricity, cinema, telephone, radio and library also finds place in the book. The last pages of this book concentrates on articles written by teachers and students of Government U.P.School, Kudallur. Also a brief report on school's silver jubilee celebrations is brought out. Perhaps the only negative point marked with the book is that one or two articles missed focus on Kudallur.

Efforts behind 'Kudallurinte Ormapusthakam' is highly appreciable since the book covers almost culture and society of Kudallur. Also the book had to face lot of challenges regarding the funds and is only for private distribution. Definitely Kudallur people could be proud of this book at all times. The book was relaesd during, the 50 years celebration of Naalukettu held at Thrissur. Kudallur.com is thankful to this book to a great extend because of the fact that the book had been a big support in post web development.
(The description is from www.kudallur.com)

Kudallur: Educational Facilities

The village has five schools, two of them private. They are
1, AJB School Kudallur,
2, GBLP School Kudallur,
3, GUP School Kudallur,
4, Al Hilal English Medium School Kudallur (private),
5, Sandeepani English Medium School Kudallur (private)

The first two schools offer education for standard 1to 4. GUP School has 5, 6 and 7 standards. The last two schools offer classes from 1 to 10. Kudallur depends outside for higher education. Most of the students prefer Thrithala High School, Thrithala for High School studies. Govt. VHS School Vattenad and Govt. HS School Mezhathur are the next options. Some of the parents - especially those who are working abroad- like English medium schools for their children. For inter-mediate (Higher Secondary and Vocational Higher Secondary) education the village goes to near towns such as Kuttipuram, Kunnamkulam, Koottanad, Pattambi and Edappal. A lot of parallel institutions work at these towns. They entertain a large number of students. Wisdom College Kumaranellur is the pioneer institution in parallel field.
Students from Kudallur depends SNGS Arts and Science College Pattambi, MES College Ponnani, MES Engineering College Kuttipuram, all the colleges in Thrissur city, some of the colleges of Malappuram and Kozhikode districts for collegiate education. Now a day a considerable number of students of the village go to distant districts and other states. Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Trichy and Mysore are the places of attraction for professional education.
But, one of the many new trends in the educational concepts of the village causes a great concern. The new English medium schools pose threat to the Government schools. In the case of AJB School, it taught seven or eight generations. But the flow of students- even the children of low- income families- to the new schools made the student strength of the AJBS low. Now it struggle to survive. GUP School also faces this threat.
Even then, the fact that village is 100% literate is a matter of joy.

Kudallur: Old Masjid Gets New Face

The oldest Masjid of Kudallur, the Jumua Masjid Kudallur is undergoing a renewal process, a rebuilding process actually. For this, the old beautiful masjid was demolished and the old valuable Indo-Islamic sculpture was disappeared. It was a beautiful masjid. It stood in the midst of the large khabrsthan (cemetery). Roof top of the masjid was beautifully decorated with single wood sculptures. The main woods are the Teak and Veetty. Big doors of the inner masjid were marvelous. It had four to six big flowers carved on each of them. Four inch iron belts were there on it, at the top, middle and bottom. The doors had no metal hinges.
One should go to the upstairs to enjoy the real beauty of the masjid. Big wooden beams which elevate the roof, wooden carvings which shine as new and so many other things were there to remember.
The beautiful picture of the Sree Muthuvilyaumkunnu Siva Temple could be seen from the terrace of old masjid building, just a few meters away from the masjid. It is heard that one of the oldest rural landlord gave a large area to build masjid and temple near to each other. Do you know that the Hindu- Muslim unity of the village is well appreciated during the 1920’s, the age in which the struggle against the British colonization became powerful in Malabar. The British people used to divide Hindus and Muslims by spreading false stories about tortures. But this kin of rumors had nothing to do with Kudallur’s unity.

Kudallur: Hills are Disappearing

Yes, it is going to happen at last. The Parappuram kunnu, part of Kudallur Hills is going to loss its face. It was better known as Kaadu by the very local people. But the thing now going to happen is, somebody has bought the kunnu and they wish to make it a rubber estate. For the first time I couldn’t believe it. There are many reasons for it. The first and the foremost is the kunnu has a straight slope. Slope means complete slope. Now somebody has come to ‘green’ it. People say he is from some other district mostly, Kollam or Thrissur. The pain haunts me now is the future of the natural spring Chola, in the foot of the hill. The crystal clear water and green surroundings! Some years ago one of the biggest rocks on the hill lost its foot and came fast to the valley. Some women were there near the well in the deepest part of the hill, near the Chola. They cried out and men folks arrived quickly. They saw the fearful picture of destroyed woods and rocks in the path of the big rock. Leave it.
The hills in Kudallur, as anywhere in Kerala are disappearing or losing their green face immediately. The Thannikkunnu, mentioned in MT’s works is a quarry now. Thus the beauty of plain surface over the hill is vanished.

Kudallur: A scenic blend of hills and paddy fields.

Kudallur has a long range of hills. The southern borders are hills, locally kunnu. In M T stories we feel the broadness of Thannikkunnu, lies above Kudallur centre, Koottakadav. Another kunnu is Parappuram hills. While the Thannikunnu is in a plain in its shape, Parappuram kunnu is truly a slope.
In Thannikunnu there was a small natural pond surrounded by black rocks called Thavalachira (Frog Pond). But it was destroyed recently by the quarrying people came to the village from the neighboring districts.
Now the plain is not there. It is made a big barren zigzag land forever. You will be amazed to see the beautiful scene of joining together of the two rivers, Nila and Thootha from Thannikunnu. There is a railway bridge at this meeting place of rivers: Karuvannur Bridge. You can see it in your journey from Shoanur to Calicut (From Pattambi to Kuttipuram). At a far distance you may see the Malampuzha hills fading in to snow. On the other side of The River Nila, beyond the railway line there lays a vast sea of paddy fields. During the rainy season it will reflect the blue earth and will appear like an ocean. A small natural spring called chola is there in the valley of the Thannikunnu hills. We will discuss about Parappuram kunnu later.

At last it happened!

Thank god! It was the expected moment for many years. Yes. The Nila flowed in full swing, touching both banks. It collected energy from the continuous rain of five days
I am proud to say that I spent a whole day to enjoy the wild beauty of the river. At 7.30am I crossed the Kuttippuram Bridge. The river was flowing like laughter. At 100pm at Thrithala I could see another face of the river from the new Velliyamkalu Causeway cum Bridge. When I reached Thrithala town, there were a number of people who were enjoying the ‘new’ old face of their river. Almost a meter height of the Pump house of The Pavarotty Area Water Supply Project (the biggest drinking water project in the river) was under water. The water irrigation pump houses at and Ayyapan Kadavu and Velliyamkallu were under water. Today the Nila overflowed the Pattambi Bridge after a long period of 25 years. What happened to the river!
Hundreds of people were there at both ends of the bridge to enjoy the scene.
Akkare (the other bank of river) lands were under water. I could see Pallippuram, Perassannur, Kodumunda and many other villages were in red water. Fishing had been there.
The Thootha too was in a wild power. It empowered the flow of the Nila in the part under Kudallur.
Any way I am very happy today to see Nila as a river.

Paddy fields now Fading fields

Kudallur, as any other village in Kerala, got a vast change during 1990’s. The most interesting thing is the village had its old families and their ancestry houses (tharavadu) in the valley of hills, adjacent to the end of paddy fields. During that time every rich family had a heap of hay (Vykkkolkoona) in front of their houses. It was considered as the sign of wealth and prosperity. The old people say this koonas had a major role in determining the fate of marriage proposals ie. the height of the heap was a successful indicator of prosperity of a family. Simply, the amount of paddy field in possession was a cause of dignity during the time.
Now, what’s the picture here? The panoramic view of the paddy fields is affected by big two- three storied concrete houses. A large amount of fields was filled or leveled for building purpose. Construction of new roads made the situation more badly than ever. More the road constructed more house were built, on the both sides of roads.
Alas! The green blanket has been going slowly.

Nila cries

It’s raining. In the olden times a small rain would beautify the river. Now it has been raining for at least four weeks. But it failed to do anything with the river. Sand excavation made the river flow less and dry. Alas! Nobody is worried about it.
The destruction of the river started since the construction of Malampuzha dam at the beginning of the river in 1955. Then came a number of small and big water irrigation projects. This was a move during the late 80’s and early 90’s. Controlled water flow led the way to a number of modes for exploiting the river. Sand excavation became common and it was supported by major political parties as they took the excavation as a way to earn something for personal and organizational benefits. During the period of 1991-2000 sand excavation broke all barriers neglecting the protest of local environmental organizations. Media failed to give enough coverage and the authorities paid no attention to the issue. The most interesting and dangerous thing was the panchayaths (local self govt. bodies) saw the excavation as a source of income. Hundreds of lorries ran to Tamilnadu and bordering sates with the clean white sand form Nila. Trade unions formed local organizations to make the sand excavation employees authorized ones.
Now everything is out of control. Though the Hon. High Court of Kerala gave strong directions to protect the river, the state govt. did nothing. The problem still continues and the river remains like a silver thread.

The Nila And Kudallur

The river Nila (bharathapuzha) and the village are closely related to each other. From the olden time itself the village depends the river in many ways, mainly for irrigating the agriculture on the river bank. There is traditional kadavu (a place where people get small rural boat thoni) called Koottakadavu.
Koottakadavu is the joining place of the two rivers Nila and Thootha. Bharathapuzha originates in the Aana malai hills in the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu, and flows westward through Palakkad, Thrissur and Malappuram districts of Kerala, with many tributaries joining it, including the Tirur River. For the first 40 km or so, the Bharathapuzha follows an almost northerly course till Pollachi. At Parli both Kannadipuzha and Kalpathipuza merge and flow as Bharathapuzha and follows a westerly course until it empties into the Arabian Sea at Ponnani.
M.T Vasudevan Nair, the famous short story- writer and Novelist writes in KADAVU magazine published from Kudallur: ‘kadavu is pacca symbolic. The village goes to the outer world, and the outer world comes to the village through the kadavu.’

WELCOME to kudallur

This blog simply deals with Kudallur, a calm and beautiful village in the Palakkad Dt of Kerala. Let's share silly and serious thoughts, to know and to be known