Thursday, March 17, 2011

Short History of Coolimuttam contributed by "Kerala Iyers"

There indeed exists a village called Kozimuttam, anglicized as Colimuttam, in Palakkad district, around 15 kms. from Plakkad town. It's a lovely village and has around 75 homes in typical agraharam(Brahmin village)style with a lovely temple too. In fact Kozimuttam is one of the original 92 Palakkad villages where the Tamil migrant refugees from the tyranny of the Tamil king Rajarajacholan, settled. The story goes that when Rajarajacholan, a vaishnavite, ascended the Madurai throne, he withdrew state patronage to the Smarthas(Iyers) and favoured the Vaishnavas(Iyengars). During the same period, the Raja of Kollengode in Kerala, was ostracized by the Namboodiri Brahmins for his alleged illicit laison with a low caste girl. Thus, the Kollengode Raja to get even with the Namboodiri Brahmins, took advantage of the plight of the Tamil Brahmins plight and invited them over to his territories and bestowed his patronge in the form of lands, jobs and other amenities to them.
As far as your name goes, it is customary in Tamil Nadu for a person to be identified by the nme of his village, followed by that of his father nd then his own name. There never used to be a last name, a surname or a family name. You must have most probably have been born outside Kerala or have had your education outside the State; hence the last name "colimuttam" in anglicized form.

No comments: