MAYANNUR KADAVU.

Description & Photos by Hamza Parappuram,
www.carregistration.ae +971506554966/+919947003700

this ferry is going to be part of history once the new Mayannur bridge is open to traffic.

Mayannur is a serene and beautiful green village right on the border of Thrissur District, 3 kilometers away from Ottapalam in Palakkad district. The place is best known for stone idols made of the soil from Mayannur which adorn various temples all over India. It can boast of several famous vintage namboothiri illams too—including Ottur Mana, Thekkedath Mana, Swarnath Mana, Pidikaparambu Mana. The late Ottur Unni Namboothiripadu, who composed ‘Syamasundaran’—a volume of devotional poems on Lord Krishna (published by the Guruvayur Devaswam), was a native of Mayannur.

Beautiful and silent Bharatapuzha (Nila) runs through the outskirts of this village. Even with a meagre population of about 8,000, it has a post office, a bank and schools.

‘Mayannur Kavu’ is the abode of Shri Kurumba Bhagavathi. Annual festival of this temple is enthusiastically celebrated during April/May with a gorgeous procession of elephants carrying Bhagavathi’s idol. This is the time all non-resident Mayannurians reach home every year. Mayannur serves as a perfect epitome of communal harmony. This place is home to temples dedicated to Lord Ram and Lord Siva. The folklore here says, Sultan Tipu’s army invaded the village and demolished the Moolannur Kavu which is in ruins since then. Mayannur also has a church, and quite a few Muslim families reside here in harmony. People respect each other’s religion and propagate unity.

‘Bhoodhan Colony’, as its name denotes, is a colony built on the land donated by late Shri Sundara Iyer to Acharya Vinoba Bhave, founder of the Bhoodhan movement, when he visited Mayannur.

K S Raman Menon Smaraka Grameena Vayanasala, is one of the many marvels of Mayannur. Kerala had very limited printing and publishing facilities in the early 19th century. Late Shri Kulakkunnath Raman Menon of Mayannur founded ‘B V Books’ in 1902 at Thiruvananthapuram. Later, he established the Kamalalaya Printing Press at Ottappalam. B V Books were the exclusive publishers for many a famous writers, including A R Rajaraja Varma, Kerala Varma and C V Raman Pillai. B V Books became famous for its publications, such as Kerala Paniniyam, Marthanda Varma, Dharma Raja and Chintavishtayaya Sitha etc. A library has since been established at Mayannur, in K Raman Menon’s memory. The Mayannur Gandhi Ashram here produce soaps and khadi clothes.

The village proudly owns ‘Thanal’ www.thannal.org, an orphanage which is now home to around 32 children. Marriage of a girl who grew up in Thanal was recently celebrated with the blessings of thousands of Mayannurians