Panaikulam or Panaikkulam is a village located in the eastern part of Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu, India.Panaikulam location on Wikimapia
/ref> The inhabitants of this village are primarily

Tamil Muslims Tamil Muslims are Tamils who practise Islam. The community is 5.7 million in India, primarily in the state of Tamil Nadu where 70% of the Muslim community identified themselves as Tamils. The Tamil-speaking Muslims are descendants of marriage ...

History

The history of Panaikulam is known for the past 200 years only. Before that, there seems to be no recorded history. From the oral information collected from the old people and with the help of a will document written by one of the descendants in the family of first migrants, it is known that Tamil-speaking Muslims migrated from adjacent parts of Ramanathapuram (e.g. Kothakottai, Udaichiyarvalasai, aalappuli ) to a place with pond and lot of palm trees. They named it as Panai (meaning ''palm tree'') kulam (meaning ''pond''). This pond (now called as Pugaloorani) served as the water source for the people and their cattle. Slowly the migrated population moved towards the inner parts of the village and established a mosque (now Jumma Mosque) for praying.Panaikulam
, Panaikulam website The migrations continued from the adjacent villages of Ramanathapuram and Panaikulam became a Muslim village. Some of the migrants used handlooms to weave the cloths and made business out of it. After some time, the mosque was built up using natural stones. It is indeed a very rare architectural beauty. During the nineteenth century, opportunities present in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

(now called Malaysia) attracted Panaikulam people and many of them went to Malaya to earn money. They mostly settled in

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

in businesses such as money exchange and restaurants.

Language

The primary language spoken by the people of Panaikulam is

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

. Even though the accent is similar to that of the

spoken in rest of Tamil Nadu, it has unique words probably borrowed from Arabic,

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

and Urdu. Certain peculiar words like nadayam (for slipper) and aanam (for curry) are used.

Food and cuisine

The food habits practised by the Panaikulam people have similarities with Tamil Muslim cuisine, Sri Lankan Muslim Sri Lankan Tamil Muslims cuisine and Malay cuisine. For example, the foods such as Watalappam and Idiyappam are regularly prepared and eaten by Sri Lankan Tamil Muslims and

settled in Malaysia and Singapore.

Notable person

* Haji Mastan - The birthplace of Haji Mastan is Panaikulam. * K.A.N Bahurdeen, patriarch for the K.A.N (Kati-Adham-Naina) clan, philanthropist and founder of Bahurdeen School, first school to be established in Panaikulam for the village and its surrounding areas. Now it is run by government under the name Bahurdeen Government Higher Secondary School.

References

{{Reflist Cities and towns in Ramanathapuram district