User:Yamenon/sandbox

=== some details about"Pattenchery" === Located between Tattamangalam municipal town and Vandithavalam, Pattencherry is a serene and scenic agricultural area. It houses a secondary school, a library cum reading room, a market and a couple of cinema houses, among others, and is linked to various educational institutions and hospitals.

People are literate and secular. Various communities belonging to different strata of society live in harmony. Hindu temples and other religious worship centers exist. The Lord Shiva temple is likened to that of Kasi Vishwanatha, since it is facing a crematorium, which is placed nearly one Km away.

Annual festivals take place during April and May. “Kummatti” is held for Devi (‘Vanadurga’, or, ‘Nellikkulathi’) and “Karivela” for Lord Ayyappa, followed by a fortnight long “Pavakoothu” depicting the Ramayana. “Pongal”, a three-day ceremony dedicated to Mariamma, is separately celebrated by different social segments. Further, at certain periods of the year functions are conducted for Devi, Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesh and Lord Subramanya.

“Nair thara” consists of about eighty homes, who collectively organize the festivals. Of these, native families, spread over many homes, are over a dozen, viz., ‘Nair Veedu’, ‘Chakingal’ ‘Yezhuvath’, ‘Madassery’, ‘Vellapattu’, ‘Changam Veedu’, ‘Ammodath’, ‘Kodenchery’, ‘Maniyil’, ‘Arimbra’, “Neelachadath’, ‘Vattakattu’, etc. Brahmins also partake in this, however, most of them have left for good. In the past, “Nair Veedu” was the community leader. The senior most male member of this family is called “Yasamar”, whose personal participation is compulsory in the festivals. Each day of the ‘Pavakoothu’, is sponsored by a “tharavad”.

Sometime ago a dispute arose between nairs and some communities on running of temples. However, the Supreme Court has established the rights of nair community, who have been doing this for centuries.

A couple of families have as their icon, certain ‘sidda purushas’ or ‘yogis’. For instance, while ‘Chakkingal’ family adores “Kuppandimama”, ‘Yezhuvath’ family worships “Koppumama”, a sixteenth century saint and a disciple of Thunjath Ramanujan Ehzuthachan, revered as ‘Father of Malayalam literature’.

The seer, who earlier was Gopala Menon from Chittur Yezhuvath, is said to have had invoked the divine presence of Mariamma, the family deity. It is said that his possessions consisted of items like the precious “Salagramam”, which seems to have been lost. Koppuman’s palm-leaf writings are kept in his temple, erected by the family during nineteen sixties. The land was gifted by late Yezhuvath Parukutty Amma, and the renowned astrologer, late Yezhuvath Raghava Menon supervised construction and consecration. Nowadays the family Trust governs the religious and welfare activities. *****