Perinkulam agraharam

Perinkulam agraharam

Compiled by
P.R,Ramachander

(Our face book friend Sri Shivam Perinkulam has written two very pretty and detailed essays on his village and put it in his blog. Those interested may please refer https://perinkulams.wordpress.com/…/perinkulam-a-pond-a-vi…/ , https://perinkulams.wordpress.com/…/perinkulam-story-conti…/ )

Perikulam is a prosperous agraharam which is 25 km from Palakkad .It means “big pond” There are three branches of the village viz Thekke gramam , Padinjare Gramam and Kariot gramam .Originally about 200 Brahmin houses were there in the village ,

There is a story of how the village came in to existence . It seems Some Brahmin merchants selling cloth came to kerala. (Mid way some of them went to Thirupathi ).When they reached the present spot known at that time as Vizhimalai , the land lords there gave some land to these tamil Brahmins to settle down there. They called it Perum Kulam(Big pond) . The people who went to Thirupathi also returned and joined with them and settled down there, They had brought with them idols of Varadaraja swamy and Mahalakshmi ,All of them together built a temple for both gods together , But after some time there was quarrel between them and they took away Mahalakshmi from the varadaraja swami’s temple and constructed a separate Lakshmi temple and they constructed a separate Agraharam near that temple which was called Kariot agrahara.,
One Bhaskara Pattar in the olden times went to Kasi by walk and while coming back brought a Siva lingam and Visalakshi Amman statue.A separate Shiva temple was built which also houses Bala Ganapathi , Bhagwathi , and Naga Prathishta .Later a Lord Sastha temple was built behind the Shiva temple.
Apart from the original inhabitants , it seems some Brahmins near Trichur came and settled down in Perinkulam. They built their own street called Thekke Gramam and consecrated a Navaneetha Krishna temple there .It seems when they were about to build a temple , one of them had a dream to go to Varikkasserry Mana and bring the Navaneetha Krishna idol from there . The mana people also had a similar dream and thus Lord Navaneetha Krishnan came to Perinkulam.
There is also a Mariyamman temple in the village called Pavadi Mariamman temple.

Four ponds have been dug by iyers in the village viz., Suryappa pattar kolam, Annakutty kolam, Anandan Kolam and Chitri Kolam.

Miracles which had happened in Varadaraja temple

It seems from ancient times the pooja of this temple was done by one Namboothiri .Once after all poojas were over when he was returning home along with prasadam and lamp , it seems it started raining and the lamp he was carrying was put out. He Orayed God Varadaraja and Tamil Brahmin friend of his called Rama Pattar appeared before him with a chootu (made of coconut sheaths) ,Rama Pattar took the Nambudiri to his home and when Nambudiri invited Rama Pattar inside he simply vanished for he was lord Varadaraja himself.
There is also a story that when the people were not able to do Rathothsavam due to heavy rain, they approached a great astrologer cum Devi Upasaka called Ari Raghava SAstrigal . The satrigal took his golden THulasi mala and kept it on a plank and assured villagers that rain would stop and it did. After the festival rain again started and sastigal presented the mala to God Varadaraja,
It seems one Lady called Bommi used to decorate the chariots . During one particular year the villagers did not have money to give her to make arrangements and they gave one necklace of the Lord to her.She also did ot have money and pawned it with a pawn broker. That night the pawn broker saw a divine light surrounding the box where the necklace was kept,The pawn broker returned back the necklace and said he did not want the money back. Bommi was carrying out the decoration for several years

The poojas in the temples are performed by Iyers but the Kurukkal visits the temples for performing poojas during the annual festival. Though the temples had separate festivals during the past, now all of them celebrate the Ratholsavam during Masi Magam in a very grand scale.

Among the prominent people of the village are Sri P.R.Subramanya Iyer, prominent advocate, Industrialists Ramadas and Balakrishnan who ran the company Rambal limited manufacturing fasteners, Sri P.N.Ganesan who took part in the freedom struggle, Sri Viswanatha iyer who ran a modern dairy in the village and Dr. P.V.Rajappan the agricultural scientist who worked among tribals of Tamil Nadu.