Kottayam

The place-name "Kottayakam" is first found recorded in the deed by which Aditya Varma, the Thekkumkur king of the time, granted tax-exempt land in AD 1550 for the Valiyapally — Kottayam's first Christian church. Before that, old Kottayam had been known by the name Thaliyanthanapuram.

This appears in a Vattezhuthu document beginning: "In the year Kollam 725, written on a Meenam Sunday, this is the matter of the karanma deed — Adichavarmar, the Kerala ruler of Vembalanad and temple authority, together with his nephew Iravi Manikandar, also a temple authority, [granted] the northern portion of the plot called Vettarkunnu within their Kottayakam, for the building of a church..."

Portuguese records from that same period and afterward refer to Kottayam as "Cottaty." The Dutch, who arrived by the mid-seventeenth century, called it "cottate." It is likely that the Dutch came to use this form after hearing Malayalam speakers use inflected forms like "Kottayathe" and "Kottayathu" in sentences. A Dutch map made in AD 1695, preserved at the National Archives in The Hague, records Thazhathangadi as "Basaar Cottate." British records show the form "Cotym," while later correspondence from English missionaries shows "Cottayam."

The name Kottayam, then, originates from "Kottayakam." In the early fifteenth century, the Thekkumkur dynasty chose Thaliyilkotta — then known as Thaliyanthanapuram — as its administrative capital. To protect the palaces and administrative offices built near the Thaliyil temple, a fort was constructed of laterite around the top of Thaliyilkunnu. The fort had a circumference of about one and a half kilometers, was about twelve kol wide at the base, seven kol wide at the top, and roughly twelve feet high. It had six bastions positioned at various points. Crocodiles were reportedly kept in the surrounding moat.

People coming from other parts of Thekkumkur to the capital referred to the Thekkumkur royal seat as "Kottayakam" — meaning "the interior of the fort." Gradually, the areas outside the fort — Thazhathangadi, Valiyangadi, Puthenangadi, Govindapuram, Karappuzha, Veloor, and Chaliyakunnu — also came to be regarded as part of Kottayakam.

Thekkumkur's surrender and absorption into Travancore came about when the Travancore army attacked the fort and destroyed the palace in December AD 1749. Around AD 1880, Sir T. Rama Rao, the Dewan Peshkar of the Kottayam Division, had the already-ruined fort completely demolished. With that, the historic Thaliyilkotta — the very source of the name Kottayam — survived only in memory and hearsay.

The eastward shift of Kottayam town's center took place when Sir T. Rama Rao redefined the town around Thirunakkara and established the division headquarters (Hajur Kacheri) there.

Once the division itself came to be named Kottayam, people from as far as Moovattupuzha to Chengannur, and from Kumily to Kumarakom, all came to be known as "Kottayam people." Later, with the formation of Idukki and Pathanamthitta districts, people in those areas ceased to be counted as Kottayam natives. Today, while people from Vaikom to Changanassery and from Mundakkayam to Kumarakom are known as Kottayam natives, it is worth remembering that three centuries ago, only those who lived in and around Thaliyilkotta itself were known by that name.