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Kudamaloor · Shankarapuri · Thekkedam

Welcome to the Panickaridam Family

Panickaridam Kudumbayogam

Descendants of Thekkedathu Kora Panicker of the Kudamaloor Shankarapuri Thekkedam family, living on both banks of the Meenachil river and far beyond.

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Kudamaloor · AD 1125

Where our story begins

St. Mary's, Kudamaloor

When the Chempakassery ruler built a church at Kudamaloor, the Thekkedam family was brought from Kuravilangad and Aruvithura to worship there.

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Arpookara · c. 1750 – 1835

Kora Panicker, honoured by the Dharma Raja

A gift of music

A nadaswaram master whose gift passed down seven generations, and whose home gave the family its name.

Meet our patriarchOur music
1125KudamaloorChurch founded
4Sonsof Kora Panicker
55Namesin the family chart
300+Householdsin the three lines
Our Family

A family rooted at Kudamaloor since 1125

Our family belongs to the Kudamaloor Shankarapuri Thekkedam family, one of five Christian families settled at Kudamaloor when its church was founded in 1125. Around 1550 some of the family crossed the Meenachil river to the new Palyakkunnu Angadi at Arpookara and took up the hill-produce trade.

There, around 1750, Thekkedathu Kora was born. A celebrated nadaswaram player, he was granted the title of Panicker by the Dharma Raja of Travancore, and his home became Panickaridam. His sons Pothan, Avuseppu and Itty Avira founded the three lines that today count more than three hundred households.

“Panicker” was a royal title of honour, given with a silk cloth of honour and a chain of valour.Shankarapuri Thekkedathu Family Directory, 1987
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Palyakkunnu Angadi on the Meenachil, Arpookara · an artist's impression
Our Heritage

Three places, one story

From the church our ancestors came to serve, across the river to the house that gave the family its name.

AD 1125

Kudamaloor

Five Christian families, Thekkedam among them, are settled beside the new church built by the Chempakassery ruler.

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c. 1550

Across the Meenachil

Family members settle at the new Palyakkunnu Angadi in Arpookara and trade in hill produce.

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c. 1758

Panickaridam

Kora's home in the Angadi takes the name Panickaridam after the Dharma Raja makes him a Panicker.

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Our Patriarch

Thekkedathu Kora Panicker

c. 1750 – c. 1835

A nadaswaram master famed across central Travancore, Kora pleaded his brother's innocence before the Dharma Raja and won the king's favour with a verse in his praise. The king cleared his brother and made Kora a Panicker. In the 1830s his son Ittycheria helped found the Mannanam monastery.

PanickerTitle of honour
Virali PattuSilk of honour
Veera ShrinkhalaChain of valour
Read his storyOur music
Family Branches

The three lines of the family

Three of Kora Panicker's four sons founded the lines that make up the family today.

His second son, Ittycheria, did not marry and devoted his life to the Church.

Family Tree

Four generations, drawn as a living tree

Every name in the family chart, from Kora Panicker to his great-great-grandchildren, with the chart code that places each person in the family.

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Gallery

Memories of the family

Photographs from family gatherings, church feasts and old albums.

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Missionaries

Priests, sisters and brothers from the family.

Obituary

Remembering those who have gone before us.

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Family history, chart and membership forms.

About Our Family

From Kudamaloor to Arpookara: the family's origins, the life of Kora Panicker, and the music that runs through seven generations.

Our History

From Kudamaloor to Arpookara

How a family brought to settle beside a new church in the twelfth century came to live on both banks of the Meenachil river.

Chapter I

How Chempakassery rule began

Early in the twelfth century, a band of Nair soldiers fled south after a war somewhere in the north and arrived, exhausted, near the Kumaranalloor temple. Kumaranalloor was then a powerful temple settlement in the Thekkumkur kingdom, and all authority there lay with the temple's hereditary trustees, the Ooranmakkar.

Hungry and thirsty, the soldiers asked the Namboothiris near the temple for a single meal. The trustees pointed to Unni Namboothiri of the Pulickal Chempakassery Illam and told them he was the temple's ruler and would surely feed them. Unni was one of the trustees, but his family was very poor, and the others said this to mock him. Not knowing this, the soldiers went to Unni, and he took them home.

At the Illam, Unni told his mother what had happened. Poor but kind-hearted, mother and son were troubled. Unni offered to sell the only valuable thing he owned, a tiger-claw ring, and his mother agreed. He gave the ring to the soldiers, who sold it and bought food. From then on they held Unni and his household in deep respect, and they turned against the wealthy trustees who had sent them to a boy to be mocked.

The soldiers accepted Unni Namboothiri as their lord and resolved to punish the trustees. They looted and burned many of their houses and handed the wealth to Chempakassery. The trustees appealed to the king. The soldiers told him they would cause no more trouble if land were granted to the Namboothiri who had helped them. The Thekkumkur king agreed to give Chempakassery as much land as one man could clear and mark out in a single day. The next morning one soldier cut through the forest from dawn to dusk and claimed the whole western part of Kumaranalloor. The king had not expected so large an area, but he kept his word.

Because the boundary was marked by clearing forest with a koduval (billhook), the place came to be called Koduvaloor, a name believed to have become Kudamaloor over time. It is said that the bodies of those killed were thrown into Mannoor Namboothiri's pond, which lay below the north side of the present Kudamaloor church cemetery.

Chapter II

The founding of Kudamaloor church

The Chempakassery ruler was deeply troubled by the cruelty done with the soldiers against the local lords, and many misfortunes are said to have followed. On an astrologer's advice, and as atonement, he built a Christian church near the Mannoor pond in AD 1125. This is the traditional account.

Chapter III

The Shankarapuri Thekkedathu family comes to Kudamaloor

Kumaranalloor and its surroundings were then home only to Namboothiris and Nairs. Since there were no Christians there to use the new church, five families were brought from Kuravilangad and Aruvithura and settled at Kudamaloor: Thekkedam, Vadakkedam, Chakkunkan, Mukkunkan and Karimpumali. This is how the Shankarapuri family came to Kudamaloor.

Chapter IV

Growth and branching of the family

Our ancestors at Kudamaloor lived mainly by farming and trade. Oral tradition holds that the Chempakassery king gave them land free of tax.

In the thirteenth century, some members of Thekkedam moved to Kottarakkara at the invitation of the king of Elayidathu Swaroopam. The District Census Handbook, Quilon (Government of Kerala, 1981, p. 20) records that some 700 years ago the Kottarakkara king built a church for the Thekkedathu Christian family. This is also noted in the Kottarakkara Thekkedathu family history.

Wars, floods, natural disasters, the rise of local kingdoms, the founding of churches, changes in the land, divisions in the faith, new islands and new institutions all drive migration, and the family has seen such movements in many periods. More recently, when Kottayam Medical College was built at Arpookara, some family members left for other places.

The great flood of 1341 caused heavy losses in Thekkumkur, Vadakkumkur, Poonjar, Perumpadappu Swaroopam and other kingdoms, and changed the land itself. The port of Kodungallur, which foreigners called Muziris, silted up. A new branch of the Periyar deepened the Kochi estuary, giving rise to Kochi port. Silt in Vembanad Lake formed Vypin island, and also Pulinkunnu, Edathua, Kainakary and Kumarakom. Shallower parts of the lake could now be bunded for rice. Rivers changed course and landslides levelled hill slopes, and these changes in the land changed people's lives.

Most Christians lived by farming, and the new land helped farming spread. In the fifteenth century, Shankarapuri families moved in search of new fields, reaching Njarakkal and Karimannoor. Around AD 1450, under a treaty with Thekkumkur, the Chempakassery rulers founded the kingdom of Purakkad, and Shankarapuri families reached Pulinkunnu, Champakulam, Edathua and other parts of Kuttanad. The Thekkedathu Srambickal family of Pulinkunnu branched off from Kudamaloor Thekkedam, and the 1987 family directory records that some also went to Edathua. Exactly who went to Kuttanad is still to be established.

Chapter V

Palyakkunnu Angadi

With the arrival of the Portuguese and the Dutch, markets for hill produce opened at many inland places. Around 1550 the Palyakkunnu Angadi (market) was founded at Arpookara, north of the Kavanar (Meenachil river), and some of the Thekkedathu family moved there and took up the hill-produce trade.

Kudamaloor church stands on the south bank of the Kavanar; after the 1341 flood the river had narrowed, which helped people spread north of it. The market grew into a Christian centre, but its people still had to cross the river to attend church. To solve this, a kurishupally (chapel) was built at Palyakkunnu Angadi around AD 1600.

Verified records. The ancestors' names have been checked against the 1837 Thaliyola records and the 1905 Settlement Register held at the Central Archives, Thiruvananthapuram.
Thekkedathu Kora Panicker

The nadaswaram master of Arpookara

Kora was born around 1750, son of Thekkedathu Pothan Mappila. His childhood fell in the years when Marthanda Varma conquered the Thekkumkur kingdom. In 1758 Marthanda Varma died and Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma, remembered as the Dharma Raja for his care of his people, came to the throne.

Drawn from boyhood to music and literature, Kora went to the Tamil country and mastered several instruments. His skill on the nadaswaram was famous across central Travancore, and he worked for the good of both his land and his church. Thachil Mathu Tharakan, a leading merchant of the time, was his friend.

His younger brother Kuriyeppu traded in hill produce from Pala, Cherpunkal, Kudamaloor, Thazhathangady and Alappuzha. When Kuriyeppu was accused of failing to pay the royal levy, Kora sought Mathu Tharakan's help. Tharakan brought him before Raja Kesavadas, the great Dewan, who understood the facts and presented Kora to the Dharma Raja.

Kora sang a verse in the king's praise, won his favour, and pleaded his brother's innocence. The king cleared Kuriyeppu and made Kora a Panicker.

From then on Thekkedathu Kora was known as Kora Panicker, and the place where he lived became Panickaridam. His house stood on the left side of the market, in front of the Arpookara Angadi church, and apart from a few, his descendants still live in the area.

In the 1830s, when the Mannanam monastery was being founded, Brother Yakob Kaniyanthara, assistant to Fr. Porukkara, came to Kora Panicker, then a local leader, to obtain government permission. Limited by age, Kora Panicker gave the task to his son Ittycheria, who carried it out. Brother Yakob recorded this in his chronicles. Kora Panicker died around 1835. His brother Kuriyeppu moved to Cherpunkal for his business and founded the Manjananickal family.

1A · Eldest son

Pothan

Plathottam

Settled at the Plathottam property in the Angadi. More than a hundred families: Plathottam, Karimattam and others.

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1B · Second son

Ittycheria

Unmarried

Devoted to spiritual life. Carried out the work for founding the Mannanam monastery.

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1C · Third son

Avuseppu

Karinganamattam

Moved to Mudiyoorkara. More than a hundred houses: Karinganamattam, Mattam, Kiliyambra, Mannakunnel and others.

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1D · Youngest son

Itty Avira

Panickaridam

Stayed at the ancestral home. More than a hundred families: Panickaridam, Chettissery, Kizhakke Thayyil, Kuzhiparambil, Kizhakkeparambil, Poothara and others.

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Today most of Kora Panicker's fifth to ninth generations live around Arpookara, Mudiyoorkara, Adichira and Mannanam.

Others have settled in Idukki, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Kannur and Wayanad, and in recent years some have made their homes abroad.

Timeline

Nine centuries at a glance

1125

Kudamaloor church foundedThekkedam and four other families are brought from Kuravilangad and Aruvithura.

13th c.

Kottarakkara branchSome Thekkedam members move at the king's invitation; a church is built for them.

1341

The great floodNew islands and farmland form around Vembanad Lake.

c. 1450

Into KuttanadAfter Purakkad is founded, families reach Pulinkunnu, Champakulam and Edathua.

c. 1550

Palyakkunnu AngadiFamily members settle at the new Arpookara market as traders.

c. 1600

Kurishupally builtA chapel at the Angadi spares the river crossing to Kudamaloor.

c. 1750

Kora is bornSon of Thekkedathu Pothan Mappila.

after 1758

Title of PanickerConferred by the Dharma Raja; his home becomes Panickaridam.

1830s

Mannanam monasteryKora Panicker's son Ittycheria helps secure government permission.

c. 1835

Death of Kora Panicker

1923

St. Mary's Band SetFounded at Arpookara by Kizhakkeparambil Peelipose Ouseph.

1987

Family directoryThe Shankarapuri (Thekkedathu) Family History Directory is published.

Our Music

Seven generations of musicians

Kora Panicker's gift for music passed through his sons and grandsons, and many became professional musicians of Travancore.

The nadaswaram in Nasrani life

That our Nasrani ancestors took the nadaswaram to heart continued Kerala's own culture. After embracing Christianity they kept local customs such as the thali and the manthrakodi, and the nadaswaram belonged to the same inheritance. The vadyappura (musicians' houses) still standing beside churches at Kuravilangad and Lalam recall how central music once was.

  • Played with the thavil drum in feast-day processions carrying statues of the saints and of Mary.
  • Never played inside the church during the Holy Qurbana, only in processions and celebrations outside.
  • An essential part of wedding processions in old Syrian Christian families of Travancore.
  • Made of aacha wood (Indian blackwood), which gives the instrument its rich tone.
  • From the 1950s, Western brass bands began to take its place at church feasts.

Musicians of the family

3rd gen.Appayichan (Plathottathil Pothan) and his sons Kunjakko, Pothan and Ithappu
4th gen.Kizhakkeparambil Peelipose Ouseph
5th gen.Kizhakkeparambil Kurian; Kuzhiparambil Vakkachan, Joseph and Thomas; Panickaridathu Varkey
7th gen.Plathottathil Gautham Vincent

The four leading bands of Travancore in their day came from Arpookara, Mannanam, Changanassery and Cherthala.

1923

St. Mary's Band Set, Arpookara

Founded with ten members by Kizhakkeparambil Peelipose Ouseph. Its leading players were Plathottathil Pothan, Ithappu and Kizhakkeparambil Ouseph Peelipose. Its golden years were 1935 to 1942.

P K

P K Brothers

Formed by young men of the family: Kizhakkeparambil Kurian, Kuzhiparambil Thomas, Vakkachan and Joseph, and Panickaridathu Varkey. It became well known and gave many concerts in Travancore and the Madras Presidency.

The bands travelled by country boat with their instruments and stayed for the ten or eleven days of each feast, from flag hoisting to flag lowering. Besides their own parish, Kudamaloor St. Mary's, they played at:

ChampakulamPulinkunnuAlappuzha PazhavangadiKottayamPalaKuravilangadVechoorKaduthuruthyAthirampuzha
References

Sources

  1. 1Changanacherry Athirupatha: Innale, Innu, Vol. II, pp. 218–220. St. Joseph's Orphanage Bookstall.
  2. 2Mani Joseph Arekkattil, Charithram Urangunna Kudamaloor Palli.
  3. 3Shankarapuri (Thekkedathu) Family History Directory, 1987.
  4. 4Manjananickal Family History.
  5. 5Br. Yakob Kaniyanthara: An Unknown Karmayogi. His tomb is at Mannanam church, beside that of St. Chavara.
  6. 6Government of Kerala, District Census Handbook, Quilon, 1981, p. 20.
  7. 71837 Thaliyola records and 1905 Settlement Register, Central Archives, Thiruvananthapuram.
  8. 8Panickaridam family chart, generations 1 to 4.

Family Tree

Four generations of Kora Panicker's descendants from the family chart. Tap a name to follow its line, or switch to the branch chart.

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Tap any name on the tree to light up that person's line and see their children. Medallions are Kora Panicker's sons, leaves are the fourth generation, and hollow leaves are names not yet recorded. Use + and − to zoom, and drag or swipe to move around the tree.

Family Branches

Three of Kora Panicker's four sons founded the lines that make up the family today.

His second son, Ittycheria, did not marry and devoted his life to the Church.

Governing Committee

The office-bearers and branch representatives of the Panickaridam Kudumbayogam.

Events

Kudumbayogam meetings, reunions, feasts and celebrations of the family.

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Kudumba Photos

Family photographs with the story behind each one: who is in it, which house, when it was taken and what was happening.

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Obituary

We remember with love the members of our family who have gone before us.

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Missionaries

Priests, religious sisters and brothers, and missionaries of the family who served the Church in Kerala and abroad.

A family of faith · 1830s

Ittycheria, son of Kora Panicker

Kora Panicker's second son lived a life devoted to faith and did not marry. He carried out the government work for the founding of the Mannanam monastery, the first house of the CMI congregation.

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Downloads

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Family history

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History of PanickaridamMalayalam · Kudamaloor origins, Kora Panicker, music heritage
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History of Panickaridam, EnglishEnglish translation of the family history
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Family chart

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Family Chart, Generations 1 to 4Kora Panicker's descendants with chart codes
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Membership

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Membership application formTo be added by the committee
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Life members listTo be added by the committee
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Annual general meeting noticeTo be added by the committee
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KudumbayogamPanickaridam Kudumbayogam
AddressArpookara Angadi, Arpookara P.O.
Kottayam, KeralaConfirm address
PhoneTo be added by the committee
EmailTo be added by the committee