Epilogue
By Pallikonam Rajeev
Chalukunnu was the eastern gateway to old Kottayam town. Kottayam town, during the Thekkumkur era, stretched from Chalukunnu westward to Kummanam, with Thaliyilkotta as its administrative seat, Govindapuram marking its northernmost point, and Veloor its southern edge. On the northern side of Chalukunnu, on the bank of the Meenachil river, stood a customs post (chowka) for collecting toll from boats arriving from the east laden with hill produce. This area, east of Govindapuram, came to be known as Chungam (toll station). North of the Chetty street, east of Chalukunnu, lay Annankunnu — notorious, until the last century, as a haunt of robbers.
In the sixteenth century, to weave the cloth needed for the old Thekkumkur kingdom, the Thekkumkur king brought in the Chaliyar — traditional weavers — from Chirakkal in Kannur. He settled them on the northern part of the hill that later came to be called Chalukunnu. From then on, this place came to be known as Chaliyakunnu ("Chaliyar's Hill"). Numerous Chaliyar families made their living through weaving. The cotton supplied to them, and the finished cloth bought from them, passed through the Chetty traders who lived on the street to the east of Chaliyakunnu. The site where today's CSI Bishop's House stands was known at that time as Chettitheruvu (Chetty Street). The Chettys sold textiles both by carrying them house to house and from their shops.
Tailoring was uncommon in those days. The Panan community, entrusted specifically with sewing royal garments as well as the clothing of Christian priests, notables, and women, lived in Thaliyanthanapuram. Nearly everyone else wore mundu and thorthu — garments that required no stitching.
Chaliyakunnu retained that name until about a century ago, when it gradually shortened to Chalukunnu. With the fall of Thekkumkur in the mid-eighteenth century, the livelihoods of the Chaliyar weavers and Chetty traders here fell into difficulty. For roughly the next seven decades, they continued to live there, dependent on the newly rising Thirunakkara. Around AD 1820, Colonel Munro, then Dewan of Travancore, had them evicted and handed the entire area over for the work of Anglican missionaries. It is understood that most of these families returned to their ancestral homelands.
South of the slope of Chalukunnu lies a long stretch of water called Parasuraman Chira. It was on the northern bank of this waterbody that the Chaliyar of Chaliyakunnu used to dye and dry their cloth. In later times, as silt accumulated and the land became cultivable, it came to be known as Chirayilpadam. Though this remains the place-name today, the land has since been filled in and built over with houses, to the point that even the past presence of a waterbody there is now entirely forgotten.
It was in this broad, sprawling Parasuraman Chira — bounded on the east by the grounds of the new Thrikkovil temple, between Nakkarakunnu and Chaliyakunnu, and on the west by Parandankuzhi — that Kottayam's very first boat race (vallamkali) was held, during Thekkumkur rule. In those days, near Thaliyanthanapuram Chantha (the old market), there stood a pavilion known as Madathil. Before the boat race, the king and queen, with their retinue, would come and be seated at this pavilion. The competing boats were small travel boats, curved vallavaravallams, and kothumbuvallams — the large snake-boats familiar today were, at that time, in use only in Chempakassery's Kuttanad. The Thekkumkur king would sit at the grounds of the new Thrikkovil temple and present prizes, during this monsoon-season race, to those who took part and won.