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Pakkanar
Pakkanar is a character in Malayalam Folklore. Pakkanar was born as the son of Vararuchi, the famous astrologer who adorned the court of King Vikramaditya. Pakkanar was second among the twelve offspring or the Parayi petta panthirukulam (12 children born from the Pariah woman). Just a shout away from Mezhathol Agnihothri's home Vemancheri Mana in Thrithala, is the Paakkanar colony otherwise known as Eerattinkal Paraya colony adjoining Arikkunnu mentioned earlier. In the traditional caste hierarchy in Kerala, the Paraya caste was considered a lower caste. Families of Paakkanaar lineage live in this colony in 18 houses. The story goes that it was Paakkanar who actually made a "Thampraakkal" out of "Azhvanchery Thamprakkal", who is considered as the head of the Namboothiris of the region. Stories of Pakkanar Aithihyamaala by Kottarathil Sankunny says many stories of Pakkanar. According to one story Pakkanar made only 4 "Muram" (A traditional south Indian board used to separate t ...
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Thrithala
Thrithala is a town and a village in Pattambi taluk in Palakkad District of Kerala state, South India. The town is located along the banks of Bharathapuzha and is famed for its Shiva temple. History The legend of ' Parayi petta panthirukulam' is centred on Trithala. According to this story, a Brahmin named Vararuchi, married a lower caste woman without knowing her true identity(?). After the marriage, they set out on a long journey. During the course of the journey, the woman became pregnant several times, and every time she delivered a baby, the husband asked her to leave it there itself. Each of the babies was taken up by people of different castes (totally 12), thus they grew up in that caste, making the legendary 'Panthirukulam'. They all became famous in their lives and many tales are attributed to them. The eldest was Agnihothri, a Brahmin, whose place is Mezhathur in Trithala. The others are Pakkanar (basket weaver), Perumthachan (Master carpenter), Naranathu Bh ...
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Azhvanchery Thamprakkal
Azhvanchery Thamprakkal or Azhvanchery Samrāṭ is the title of the senior-most male member of the Brahmin (Namboothiri) feudal lords of Azhvanchery Mana in Athavanad, Tirur Taluk, present-day Malappuram district, Kerala state, South India. They had the right over Guruvayur too. They were the titular head of all Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala. The Lord of Azhvanchery based at Athavanad and the Lord of Kalpakanchery based at the neighbouring Kalpakanchery were usually present at the coronation (''Ariyittu Vazhcha'') of a new Zamorin of Calicut. Kalpakanchery Thamprakkal were related to the Nambudiris of Panniyoor while Azhvanchery Thamprakkal to those of Chowwara. History There are lots of theories as to how Nambudiri Brahmins came to settle in Kerala, the commonly accepted point of view is that they moved in from North India via Tulu Nadu or Karnataka. Another theory based on the retention of ''Mahabharata'' types as memorized by different Brahmin communities points to Tamil Na ...
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Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was designated a "Classical Language of India" in 2013. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala, and Puducherry ( Mahé), and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep, and is spoken by 34 million people in India. Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Kanyakumari, district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the Malayali Diaspora worldwide, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, due to large populations of Malayali expatriates there. There are significant population in each cities in India including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune etc. The origin of Malayalam remains a matter of ...
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Vararuchi
Vararuci (also transliterated as Vararuchi) () is a name associated with several literary and scientific texts in Sanskrit and also with various legends in several parts of India. This Vararuci is often identified with Kātyāyana. Kātyāyana is the author of Vārtikās which is an elaboration of certain sūtrās (rules or aphorisms) in Pāṇini's much revered treatise on Sanskrit grammar titled Aṣṭādhyāyī. Kātyāyana is believed to have flourished in the 3rd century BCE. However, this identification of Vararuci with Kātyāyana has not been fully accepted by scholars. Vararuci is believed to be the author of ''Prākrita Prakāśa'', the oldest treatise on the grammar of '' Prākrit'' language. Vararuci's name appears in a verse listing the 'nine gems' (navaratnas) in the court of one Samrat Vikramaditya. Vararuci appears as a prominent character in Kathasaritsagara ("ocean of the streams of stories"), a famous 11th century collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and ...
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Vikramaditya
Vikramaditya (IAST: ') was a legendary king who has been featured in hundreds of traditional stories including those in ''Baital Pachisi'' and ''Singhasan Battisi''. Many describe him as ruler with his capital at Ujjain (Pataliputra or Pratishthana in a few stories). The term ''Vikramaditya'' is also used as a title by several Hindu monarchs. According to popular tradition, Vikramaditya began the Vikrama Samvat era in 57 BCE after defeating the Shakas, and those who believe that he is based on a historical figure place him around the first century BCE. However, this era is identified as "Vikrama Samvat" after the ninth century CE. "Vikramaditya" was a common title adopted by several Indian kings, and the Vikramaditya legends may be embellished accounts of different kings (particularly Chandragupta II). Nevertheless, many scriptures from the Shaka era mentions the mighty ruler. Early legends Malava king Rajbali Pandey, Kailash Chand Jain and others believe that Vikramad ...
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Paraiyar
Paraiyar, or Parayar or Maraiyar (formerly anglicised as Pariah and Paree), is a caste group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and Sri Lanka. Etymology Robert Caldwell, a nineteenth-century missionary and grammarian who worked in South India, was in agreement with some Indian writers of the same period who considered the name to derive from the Tamil word '' parai'' (''drum''). According to this hypothesis, the Paraiyars were originally a community of drummers who performed at auspicious events like weddings and funerals. M. Srinivasa Aiyangar, writing a little later, found this etymology unsatisfactory, arguing that beating of drums could not have been an occupation of so many people. Some other writers, such as Gustav Solomon Oppert, have derived the name from the Tamil word ''poraian'', the name of a regional subdivision mentioned by ancient Tamil grammarians, or the Sanskrit ''pahariya'', meaning "hill man". More recently, George L. Hart's textual a ...
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Orient Longman
Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd. (formerly Orient Longman India, commonly referred to as Orient Longman), is an Indian publishing house headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana. The company publishes academic, professional and general works as well as school textbooks, of which the "Gulmohar" series of English-language schools books grew popular. It also publishes low cost reprints of foreign titles. History Established in 1948 as Longman Green by the UK publishing company Longman, it was taken over by J. Rameshwar Rao, who bought the majority shareholding and became the company chairman in 1968. Rao retained the majority holding till 1984. The company's board included Khushwant Singh and the Patwardhans of Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i .... The "Indianisation" o ...
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Mezhathol Agnihothri
Mezhathol Agnihothri is a figure in the folklore of Kerala who is credited for supposedly reviving the ancient Shrauta traditions in Kerala, India, in around the mid-first millennium CE. At that time, Buddhism and Jainism had eroded the ancient Vedic religion and culture of India. Mezhathol rejuvenated the ancient customs by performing 99 ''yagas''. The Shrauta traditions still remain intact in Kerala today, maintained by the rigidly orthodox Nambudiri Brahmins. Yagas Mezhathol Agnihothri began gathering interest in the yaga culture and proceeded to perform 99 yagas, one after the other. However only seven of the original 32 Nambudiri Graamams (Villages) agreed to assist Mezhathol, and today only these Graamams (Taliparamba, Alathur, Karikkad, Panniyur, Sukapuram, Peruvanam and Irinjalakkuda) have the right to perform Yaagam. 17 Nambudiri experts are required to perform yagas, and they come from Kalakandathur Griham, Maathur Griham, Kulukkamillaavur Griham, Chemmangad Gri ...
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Namboothiri
The Nambudiri (), also transliterated as Nampoothiri, Nambūdiri, Namboodiri, Nampoothiri, and Nampūtiri, are a Malayali Brahmin caste, native to what is now the state of Kerala, India, where they constituted part of the traditional feudal elite, owning a large portion of the land in the region of Malabar until the Kerala Land Reforms starting in 1957, and intermarrying with the Nair monarchs and aristocracy through sambandham. They have historically been distinguished by rare practices such as the adherence to Śrauta ritualism, the Pūrva-Mīmāṁsā school of Hindu philosophy, and orthodox tradition, as well as many idiosyncratic customs unique among Brahmins, including primogeniture. Cyriac Pullapilly mentions that the dominating influence of the Nambudiris was to be found in all matters: religion, politics, society, economics and culture of Kerala. History Origin Nambudiri mythology associates their immigration to Kerala from the banks of Narmada, Krishna, Kaveri r ...
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Aithihyamala
Aithihyamala or Ithihyamala ( ml, ഐതിഹ്യമാല) (''Garland of Legends'') is a collection of century-old stories from Kerala that cover a vast spectrum of life, famous persons and events. It is a collection of legends numbering over a hundred, about magicians and ''yakshis'', feudal rulers and conceited poets, ''kalari'' or ''Kalaripayattu'' experts, practitioners of Ayurveda and courtiers; elephants and their mahouts, tantric experts. Kottarathil Sankunni (23 March 1855 – 22 July 1937), a Sanskrit-Malayalam scholar who was born in Kottayam in present-day Kerala, started documenting these stories in 1909. They were published in the Malayalam literary magazine, the '' Bhashaposhini'', and were collected in eight volumes and published in the early 20th century. It includes popular tales such as about the twelve children of Vararuchi and Parayi (a woman of ''Paraiyar'' caste), ''Kayamkulam Kochunni'', ''Kadamattathu Kathanar'' among many others. The story of 12 chil ...
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Kottarathil Sankunni
Kottarathil Sankunni (born Vasudevan, 1855–1937) was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Best known as the author of Aithihyamala, an eight-volume compilation of century-old legends about Kerala, Sankunni's writings cover prose and poetry, including verses for Kathakali and Ottan Thullal. He was one of the founding members of ''Bhashaposhini Sabha'' founded by Kandathil Varghese Mappillai and was also involved with ''Bharata Vilasam Sabha'', another literary initiative. He died on July 22, 1937. Biography Kottarathil Sankunni was born on March 23, 1855 at Kodimatha, in Kottayam district of the south Indian state of Kerala (erstwhile Travancore) to Vasudevan Unni-Nangayya couple. The boy, whose name at birth was Vasudevan but was called ''Thanku'', ''Sanku'' and later ''Sankunni'', did his early schooling under the tutelage of a local teacher and later, studied Sanskrit under Manarkattu Sanku Warrier and traditional medicine under Vayskara Aryan Narayanan Mooss. He joine ...
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