Puttingal Temple - information collected from puttingaltemple.org

Temple and it's history

The renowned Paravur Puttingal temple is located at Kurumandal, Paravur village of Kollam district in the state of Kerala, India .
 
 The temple is centuries old and was first constructed when the presence of Godess herself was experienced on an ant hill. The temple was named Puttingal temple, 'Puttu' being the malayalam word for ant hill. In due course of time the temple was reconstructed. The present structure is about a couple of centuries old.
The main offerings for the Puttingal Godess include flowers, tender coconuts, aval(beaten rice) and malar(puffed rice). Sandal paste and saffron powder are distributed to the devotees as prasadam
The famous "thottampattu",the most important offering in this temple, starts on the 21st day of Vrischikam(a Malayalam month falling in between mid November and mid December) and lasts till the principal festival of the Godess. 

moolasthanam kottaram

The 'birth day' of the Godess is on the day of Bharani in the malayalam month of Meenam(falling in between mid March and mid April). The main events associted with the festival are Aswathi vilakku, Kathakali, Kampadikali, Marameduppu and other cultural events. Various pujas are performed and offerings are made daily for the fulfilment of desires and redressal of various greivances of devotees.

Paravur Charithra Smaranika - book written to study the paravur hisory in high level

I have got a pdf copy of this book  published by Fine Arts(1985), Society. I can share the pdf copy to interesting readers. I will soon try to find a way to publish it as normal text in web.

Author

Some interesting thoughts from Paravur Online

Paravur , a place between Thiruvanathapuram and Kollam just north of Varkala is famous for its natural beauty. It holds a very old history and a 1000 years old civilization. It was an important place of trade as the mode of transport at that time were mainly water transport. It was a business hub between Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram.

Paravur has its own historical importance in addition to its natural beauty. It was a part of 'Pennarasu nadu' which laid between 'Venadu' and 'Desiganadu'. It was then under the control of 'Attingal amma thampuran'. An important ancient document revealing paravur's yester importance is 'Pozhikkara sasanam' built in 12 th century at Pozhikkara sivakshetram (later it became a devikshetram ). It was encrypted on a 'sila phalakam' in 'vattazhuthu'. Another mentioning of Paravur is in 'Unnineeli sandesam' which was written above more than 600 years. Some of the temples in Paravur are mentioned with importance in that script. Also some manuscripts holded on Sree Padmanabha Swami Kshethram has mensioning of some incidence held in Paravur-Thekkumbhagom.

The Paravur panchayat was formed on 1936. It was one among the 4 Panchayats sanctioned by Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer (Diwan-Thiruvithancore).The others were Bhoothappandi, Nedumangadu, and Perumbavoor.The so formed Paravur Panchayat included 9 territories-Thekkumbhagom, Kottappuram, Kongal, Pozhikkara, Kurumandal, Koonayil, Kalakkode, Bhoothakkulam and Nellettil. Sree Ramavarma koyi thampuram from Kilimanoor Palace was the first executive officer of the panchayat. The first election for Paravur panchayat was held at 1942 and Sri Achuthan Pillai became the first elected Panchayat president. Later Paravur became a Municipality on 1988 May 1st. For the first 7 years it was ruled by special officers. In 1995 after the first Municipal election Smt. Bhanumati became the first Municipal Chairperson.

First Industrial establishment for the coir industry was opened at Maniyamkulam. The first government school which started during 1889 and is still their in Kongal. The main market was shifted to the present location (Kottappuram) at a later stage. The place was donated by Kottavila Narayana Pillai. In 19th century itself paravur were in the publication industry. Sarawathy vilasam Achadi sala is considered to be the first one in that type and Mangattu Parameswaran Pillai was its founder. Kerala Bhooshanam and Vidyavilasam Press were also started in 19th centuary.'Sujanandini' was the first newspaper printed and published from Paravur(1892). Paravur Keasavanasan was the managing director of it. The initial poems of Kuamaranasan were published in this paper for first time.

Nomenclature:- The name Paravur itself reveals its historical background. The word ‘ Paravur’ is considered to be a derivative of the primitive Dravidian Etimology – ‘Paravii’ which means sea and ‘Oor’ which means place . It was originally named Paravayoor which was subsequently modified to ‘Paravur’ for the sake of convenient pronunciation.

Paravur History

This blog dedicated for people who born at Paravur kollam or their roots which was related to Paravur.
As a blogger my parents were also born at this place and our joint family (Thundathil) also got a Nalekette Tharavade at Paravur. May be it will be one of the oldest houses in Paravur. This house always amazed us in our childhood.

Quite recently i found a book (Paravur Charitha Smaranika) which is giving some light to the paravur history. I amn't sure most of the new generation in paravur know about it's place history or not. I believe that we should know our roots  and our family .

One of the interesting story or history i read from this book was given some research ideas in my mind. May be it is worth do some research about this place.

Paravur may have history of 1000 years or above , this place also got it's aborigines from history. But when we talk about 700 or 800 years back history, book saying there was king near to Uthara keralam (it may be our current malabar,some part of palakkad or even Kannur) and this king has got some territory near to Tamil nadu. It may be some place near to Palakkad called Kongad ( ie there is a place in Palakkad called kongad). It may be true.

This king had an army which was got people who was from Uthrakeralam and some tamil origins. For a noble reason people from Utharakeralam fought with Tamil families and King was against Uthrakeralam families and in this small riot, some of the tamil family people died. King was given order to catch these Uthara keralam people. As mentioned in ' Paravur Charitha Smaranika' , 23 families escaped from Kongad and came to Paravur via Pathemari (small boats) via searoot or river.

These 23 families made their life here at Paravur and they made their own tharavades at Paravur, one of the family was Pulimoode. I don't know where is it at Paravur, heard that our family(Thundathil) ancestor was from this family.It is also a story heard from great grand mother only. Kongal place name also came from Kongad. People who came from kongad , slowly called this place as kongad and it slowly become kongal . like this most of the names in Parvur got a meaning.

So guys please check your roots and may in this site you can share some thoughts and stories about your place and tharavade.

All these information , i have got from this book and stories shared my grand parents, uncles etcc