Religious Harmony Temples Churches Mosques

Alummoottil® Channar was a very renowned personality. He did many things for religious harmony. Although he was not allowed to enter any religious place due to his caste, he helped many upper caste people for their spiritual needs by building temples, church etc. It is believed that for his good deeds he was duly rewarded. During a time when the Muslim community did not have worship facilities in Muttom, Alummoottil® Channar brought Muslims from different parts of the state and built Islamic infrastructure in Muttom and donated it to the Muslim community. He also helped them with money, food, and supplies from his coffer. Thus he earned respect and love from the Muslim community. He was invited to all their special celebrations. Alummoottil® Channar was the first person to build a mosque in Muttom. He also tried to extend his offerings to the Christian Community, but they declined believing that accepting donations from other religions was a sin. Channar respected this. It was common for monsoons to cause flooding and storms in the Arabian sea. The Mukkuvan (fishermen) community in that area frequently were provided food, water and shelter during the monsoons by the Alummoottil® family. This included not just the Arayans (Hindus) and Marakkars (Muslims), but also the Christian community. In one flood, the church frequented by the fishing community was badly damaged. Although, the Christian fishermen pleaded with elite Christian community leaders, they refused help. Legend has it that the Channar helped rebuild the church anonymously through a Christian family he trusted. Alummoottil® Channar also spend a lot of his wealth for the Hindu community. One of his indispensable offering is the Oottupura that was built for Evoor Krishna Swami Temple. The Oottupura was built using large wood logs. Channar was not allowed to enter the temple while its work was going on, but Channar was very imperative that the work of Oottupura should be done right in front of him. So he bought a 4 acre property near to the temple and made the carpenter to build the Oottupura there and after that each and every wood log was numbered, then it was carefully taken off from there and assembled in the temple compound. This Oottupura is still present in the temple. He also helped in the renovation of a temple owned by a Namboodiri Brahmin community in Thattarambalam. The old temple was renovated with copper paving and brass towers. Legend has it that one day when a group of children was playing at a ground when they saw a coconut lying there. They took the coconut and hit it on the stone lying there. Surprisingly blood came out of it. They rushed to the Channar. He decided that there is something special about the place, and consulted the astrologers and Vaastu (similar to Feng Shui) experts, and ordered a beautiful Shiva temple to be built in Pallipad. Paneth temple is a temple that was also built by Channar which is followed by an interesting incident. In olden days, only 10 cent property was owned by the people of Paneth temple and about an acre of land around the temple was Kavu (haven for snakes). At that times small pox was a very dangerous and there was no way to cure it. Small pox causes large galls in the whole body that were scary to look at. So any people suffering from smallpox were placed between two palm trees on the side of the paneth kavu and handed over to a sorcerer. The sorcerer after examining for 2 days then bury the affected person alive on the third day. About 350 years ago, Channar’s wife got affected by small pox, she was taken to Paneth Kavu and handed over to the sorcerer. That day was a full moon day and the look of Channatti frightened sorcerer, and he left the premises. In the middle of the night, she woke up hearing some noise, and saw a big festival going on along with Chendamela and Kolam Thullal. She was in a dream and saw the goddess running towards her. She fell near the side walls of the pond and lost consciousness. In the morning she woke up, there was not even a small scar on her body. She then got up from there, walked slowly and lay down under the palm tree and slept. In the morning when the sorcerer came back, he was surprised. He informed Channar about this. Channar’s soldiers took a bed and went to take her back. She refused to lie in the bed and came back by walking. It is in the memory of this incident, various Bhagawathi temples were built towards the eastern region of Karthikapally taluk by Channar. Channar had a very benevolent and accommodative mind and a comprehensive religious and spiritual outlook.