How The Tharavad Was Formed

The journey from Vallabhasseril to Mannarshal temple was a long and tedious trek seven hundred years ago. Today, it is a matter of three hours by public bus or less than an hour by car to traverse the 18 or so odd miles. In her times (time precisely not known, but 15th century AD), our ancestral mother and family and their entourage traveled from her home Vallabhasseril to her favorite temple Mannarshal during the Sarpa-bali festivals, which often took two days with an intermediate camp out in Valiakuzi, which is today’s Pallipad.

With their prestige and power, they acquired considerable property in Valiakuzi and built a rest house there, which became Amma’s adobe after marriage. Vallabhasseril was a very powerful tharavad under Panthalam Raja, which provided him with all the necessary security forces of those times.

The journey from Vallabhasseril to Mannarshal temple was a long and tedious trek seven hundred years ago. Today, it is a matter of three hours by public bus or less than an hour by car to traverse the 18 or so odd miles. In her times (time precisely not known, but 15th century AD), our ancestral mother and family and their entourage traveled from her home Vallabhasseril to her favorite temple Mannarshal during the Sarpa-bali festivals, which often took two days with an intermediate camp out in Valiakuzi, which is today’s Pallipad.

With their prestige and power, they acquired considerable property in Valiakuzi and built a rest house there, which became Amma’s adobe after marriage. Vallabhasseril was a very powerful tharavad under Panthalam Raja, which provided him with all the necessary security forces of those times.

Amma was not to be denied, and particularly not humiliated as the mother of traitors. She herself took her case to the Raja himself, and upon realizing the grave injustice done to this magnificent noble woman by his men, she was compensated with substantial tax free properties that span from Karipuza to Karthikppally and Kayamkulam to Haripad.

Amma’s initial encampments were always under the same Banyan tree (Aal) during her piligrimages and upon her settlement in Valiakuzi, her new house came to be known as Alummoottil®, which later became our Tharavad name. During subsequent years of turmoil and consolidations, Panthalam and Kayamkulam got absorbed along with other smaller territories into the Travancore kingdom. Reasons are unknown, but Vallabhasseri Tharavad decayed and there is virtually nothing left of it.

However, the present day Thiruvalla derives its name from the Thiru Vallabhasseri Temple, our ancient family Temple. Now ‘achayans’ are the most prominent group there.