Here is the text in the words of my father about our village.

Our gramam Koottalai is a small village (agraharam) comparatively unknown and hidden away in a remote area of Palakkad District-KeralaState- about half-an-hour drive from Palakkad town. If by bus, just one stop before Alathur, one has to get down at Erimayur bus stop and take an auto straight to koottalai temple- normally charged at 30 rupees.

From my elders it is learnt that over 600 years ago, a very dedicated group of pious and orthodox people who had migrated there from Tanjore (Tamilnadu), built a temple in Koottalai with Sri RAMACHANDRASWAMY as the presiding deity.

There were about 18 houses in the village and all were ‘dhayadhis’-(all were related to each other) . Each one valued and respected the sentiments & properties of others. This Ideology – coming by tradition - became a mantra for unity amongst “koottaliers”.

In the words of my father (2 page)

To epitome all, functions - held every now & then in the temple built by ancestors - united the villagers and the differences if any among them got vanished and understood each other! But now with most of the houses gone to dust through ages, the temple stands as a symbol of unity.

In the words of my father (3)

About 50 years back, the state government of Kerala decreed that all agricultural land would belong to those who cultivated them and not to the landlords who leased them out to tenant farmers for cultivation.

The tenants failed to pay compensation to the landlords. The old temple forever lost its only source of income. Since then it has been depending entirely on voluntary donations from devotees and other well wishers for its maintenance and other expenses.

Most of the residents of the village were compelled to move out to different places for survival, as they too had lost their landed property leased out earlier to farming tenants.

Only two families who have been cultivating their own land are staying in the village and looking after the temple by engaging a priest to perform the daily poojas.

Here is the text of the fourth tab body.

Those days all residents of that village had landed property and they had also provided some land in the temple’s name to ensure regular income for its maintenance and other expenses.

The very purpose of this web site is not to extract money from the visitors of this site but share news/messages & memorable moments by way of photos/articles etc. amongst members of this gramam and others living in India and abroad

With the advent of cell phone, it has become quite easy to know more in detail from individuals but …. to share the same with “all” is expensive and at the same time requires record of telephone numbers/address etc. to do the same. Hence this media can be well utilized to spread message to all and reach out to our brethren.

K V Sivaraman

Here is the text of the fifth tab body.