Certain names of places in the city also refer to the hilly topography. ‘Kunnumpuram’ is the elevation of the ‘city hill’ as one approaches the city from the sea side. ‘Kunnukuzhi’ is aptly named as it is wedged between the ‘MG Road Hill’ and Barton hill. All descriptions of the city in the last century indicate that the valleys on both sides of the ‘MG Road Hill’ were rice fields (digging the ground at the author’s parents’ home in Vanchiyoor still brings up clay). The source of water for the paddy fields are also still visible. Behind the Secretariat one can still see the ‘Oottukuzhy’, a perennial source of water. On the other side of the ‘MG Road Hill’, also there are clear indications of agricultural lands. The present Chirakulam colony was established after filling a pond. ‘Chira’ is indicative of a storage pond for paddy fields. In the valley leading to Puthen road junction, there are clues to our agricultural past. For instance, the names of two houses are ‘Vayal Nikathiya Puthen Veedu’ (literal meaning is ‘New house on filled fields’) and ‘Vayalil’ (field).
The present Mathrubhumi Road towards Rishimangalam temple was till recently called Puthen Road. It was called because during the early 20th century, the rice fields on the right of the road were filled and coconut plantations (pana) were established. A new road was then made between the rice fields on the left and the pana on the right. In the slopping terrains in Chirakkulam, another ‘Oottu’ remains hidden. It is this Oottu that runs as a drain though Puthen Road junction and joins the Kannamoola thodu (canal) near the district court (it begins at the bottom of the hill on which Holy Angels’ Convent stands, in the area of the ancient Thumpara. This fount of the ‘Oottu’ is now covered by concrete slabs).
The ‘MG Road Hill’ takes a right turn at LMS junction in Palayam and the road from then on has hillocks on both sides. On the left is the Museum and Zoo, which is on a low hill that slopes towards Nanthancode. A little bit further are the twin elevations on the sides of the road – the Kanakakkunnu and Observatory Hills.
The Observatory Hills is a historically important spot housing the earliest modern scientific institution of the city, established in 1838 (the original building was in the site of the Water Works), which, for reasons unknown was demolished and replicated in the present adjacent spot. The building has the oldest marble plaque of the city, dating to 1838, both in English and Malayalam. The place was frequented by John Caldecott, the founder director, Swati Tirunal, his promoter and later, by Allan Broun who succeeded Caldecott. Caldecott was a fellow of the Royal Society and published a small booklet on the observatory in England in 1839, and it talks about the hill too.
“ The Trevandrum observatory stands on an insulated hill about almost 60 feet high and 195 3/4 feet above the sea level, from which it is distant, in a straight line, about 2 miles. The hill is a solid mass of laterite, in which graphite is largely disseminated, and is so hard as to be penetrated with great difficulty. It commands an extensive and beautiful view of an undulating and finely variegated country towards the north, the east and the south and (overlooking the declivity towards the sea and its fringe of coconut trees) of the sea horizon to the west. The eastern view is terminated by the Ghat mountains. The country intervening between the observatory and their boundaries, on the land sides, consist of hills covered with low jungle, having strips of rice ground meandering between them, and topes of trees interspersed. On a cliff, between 3 and 4 miles distant to the south are built walls of masonry , intended to receive 3 meridian marks.” A few sketches of the Observatory Hills of 1850s have survived to the present.
(To be continued…)
