Kollengode - Kizhakke gramam - 100 Agraharams Project 

Kollengode - Kizhakke gramam - 100 Agraharams Project
The East Gramam of Kollengode is about 27 kilometers south of the Palakkad Rail Junction and about 2 kilometers from the Kollengode railway station. It is just off the Pollachi highway at Kollengode town.
"As our esteemed historian KV Krishna Iyer explains, Brahmins perhaps came to this region in search of the soma plant for their sacrifices and finding it, settled down there in the hoary past. Soon their sanketam established authority over all the temples between Vadakancheri and the Anamalai hills. The venganad nampiti (a degraded version of nambudiri) was responsible in the pre cherman perumal days for the supply of Darba, Sruva and camata sticks of sacrifices in the Cheranaad.
The Gayatri / Malampuzha / Iksumati River flowed through the Palakkad region, after a pass was hived through the ghats by Parasurama's axe. Kasyapa the saint was the first occupant of Venganad, following which we stumble across the story of the king Dharmavartama who gets cured of leprosy at the temple spring in Kollengode, begets a child with his wife, but loses the child Hemanga in the fast flowing Iksumati River. Hemanga was picked up by some blacksmiths and brought up, thus earning the place name Ayaskarapura (place on the opposite bank) or Kollengode (home of the blacksmiths). As the story goes, he grew up, found an opportunity to save the wounded Parasurama, who in gratitude gifted him with the five desams covering five desams, namely Kollengode, Vattakad, Vadavannur, Elavancheri and Payyanur. There he lived to rule over the desams, after building the first kovilakom of Venganad." - so writes Sri Maddy in Historic Alleys under Malabar's history
What intrigues me is Sri Viswanathan's observation regarding the alienation of lands that belong to the temple or agraharam. I hope that the legal professionals in each village, or other villages where available, will take up this issue for the benefit of the gramam and the community as a whole, and work to reclaim possession of these assets.
Radhe Krishna
Sriram(Hari)
100-Agraharams Project
Rama Bhagavathar Charitable Trust
August 19, 2024