Monday, August 26, 2013

PAYYANUR GRAMAM - HISTORY

There
are several arguments regarding the etymological origin of Payyanur.
Dr. MGS Narayanan is of the opinion that Payyanur is derived from
pazhaiyyante ooru (the land of Pazhaiyyan,the Sangham king) But the
most popular version is the ooru of payyan ( The land of Lord
Subrahmnya) .

Payyanur
belonged to the erstwhile Payyanur firka. Kavvayi, the port of
Payyanur was the capital of Chirakkal thaluk. Kavvayi consisted of
138 desams. The first landing of Vasco de Gama on his way to Calicut
was believed to be Kavvayi port from where he collected enough fresh
water for his onward journey.

The human
foot prints at Payyanur dates back to prehistoric era. Stone writings
using iron nails could be seen from coastal Ramanthali to the hilly
Prapoyil. Prehistoric burial sites like ‘theeyathi malika in
echilam vayal and several other places, Burial urns(nannagadi) and
umbrella stones at various places shows that human habitation started here ages before. There are historians who believes that the
stone drawings at ettukudukka dates back to 4000 BC.

There is
nothing in the recorded history with regard to the life of the early
settlers of Payyanur. There were no property rights and the land
belonged to every one. Their number should have been small. They
might have lived a peaceful life without the interference of
outsiders as the land was well protected by rivers and the mighty
Arabian Sea from all sides. The early kavus of payyanur might have been their centre of social life with no idols of gods and without any doctrines of sacred texts. As organized farming has not yet started
they might have depended on the food supply from forests, rivers and
fields. They might have been thwarted from their dwellings on the
arrival of settlers mainly Brahmins from central India, Karnataka and
Tamilnadu. Their descendants however is seen confined to certain
pulaya pockets on the outskirts of main land deprived of fresh water
and other amenities.

Perumbuzha
popularly known as perumba puzha winds along the boarders of Payyanur
nourishing its watershed kaippads which is the breeding ground of
fishes and other aquatic life forms.

The Brahmin
settlers should have experienced some protests from the local people
initially. But their knowledge of astronomy and Gods gave them an upper hand which might have instilled awe on the natives. They
constructed temples on a large scale and started to live an ascetic
life eating only vegetables. They could predict the advent of monsoon
, eclipses and other celestial events. Organised farming has not yet
started. Paddy was quite new to the natives. Paddy cultivation
requires some insight as to when rains will start as the seedlings
have to be made ready before the fields get flooded. They constructed
canals from every filed to the river bed for draining of the excess
water. They used small wooden vessels tied down from a tripod which
could be used for drying water from the fields . The Brahmin settles
brought the plough and seeds with them which revolutionalised
farming. They got easy labour from the natives. Gradually as in the
other part of Kerala they organized a temple oriented village
structure . All the land was made officially belonging to the temple.
The temple was governed by Brahmins and they gradually constructed a
social structure with the Brahmins as rulers of the land and all
others their dependents.

Payyanur
was a classic Kerala village. In fact it took the lead role in the 64
Namboodiri gramams of Kerala. The division of society on the basis of
castes made things simple. For every caste a small portion of the
village was allowed with a kavu of their mother goddess as the
centre. An ambassador of the Landlord belonging to upper castes such
as Nair or Poduval was posted as the representative (koima) of the
caste who is directly answerable to the landlord. As there was cut
throat untouchability, a law caste man cannot even appear before the
landlord. He has to represent through the koima. A person belonging
to pulaya caste should not come more than 64 feet towards a
Namboodiri: an ezhava some 32 feet and a Nair 15 feet. The penalty
for violating the rule was fatal. The working class was thus
tormented from morning to evening in the fields for the welfare of
the landlord who almost starved them to death.