Located near the West Fort gate, the old archway to Saraswathy Vilasam palace, with its neo-classical architectural elements, easily captures our attention. However, not many spot the old nalukettu situated beside the archway, for it is veiled by the cool shade of several trees. Kumaramangalas Mana, the nalukettu, has a fascinating link with the ‘Ettuvettil Pillamar’.
History tells that Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1706-1758), when he strengthened the foundation of monarchy, put an end to the powerful ‘Pillamar’, the Nair nobles associated with the Padmanabha Swamy temple and the ‘Ettara Yogam’. The ‘Pillamar’ were not to go down easily. It was believed that even after their death, the ghosts of the ‘Pillamar’ gave sleepless nights to the royal family members of erstwhile Travancore.
In order to put an end to this ordeal, the royal family consulted scholars and sought the assistance of the members of Changanacherry Kumaramangalas Mana to exorcise the spirits. “According to popular tradition, the patriarchs of the Mana, with their tantric powers, managed to control the spirits. The spirits, confined in ‘kumbhams , ’ were taken to Changanacherry and installed at the Vettadikavu temple owned by the Mana. The eight niches, believed to be the resting place of the spirits, can still be seen in the temple. That is how our association with the Travancore royal family began,” says K.G.K. Namboothiripad, the present occupant of the Mana in the Fort area.
The ancient Kumaramangalas Mana in Changanacherry had its roots in ‘Kâdamuri Kara’, near Puthupally. “It was from Puthupally that our ancestors settled in ‘Puzhavathu Kara’ in Changanacherry, where the old ancestral house is still located,” says Namboothiripad. After the exorcism, the bond between Kumaramangalas Mana and the Travancore family strengthened and soon the members of the family were granted a residence inside the Fort, beside the Thevarathu Koikkal complex. “In olden days, it was customary for some of my family members to stay here in Thiruvananthapuram, as we conducted regular pujas at the Sreepadam palace.” Namboothiripad recalls his early years in Thiruvananthapuram, “As a young man I often went to the Sreepadam Thevâram to conduct pujas. If we wanted to go home, we had to make alternate arrangements with some other Namboothiris to do the puja in our absence,” adds Namboothiripad.
According to him, in olden days, the Thevarathu Koikkal compound had only few other residences in its vicinity. Thiruvalla Madhom and Kumaramangalas Mana flanked either side of the Saraswathy Vilasam Palace, the abode of the celebrated Kerala Varma Valiya Koil Thampuran, the ‘Kerala Kalidasa’.
An old record tells us that in 1831 the Travancore royal family gave to the patriarch of Kumaramangalas, a special ‘Salagramam’, and in 1816, the government took effective measures to find the culprits behind a theft in the Mana and the Vettadikavu temple.
Despite all this attention, it has been told that members of the royal family of erstwhile Travancore, for long, never visited the Vettadikavu temple. There was a belief that, if the King of Travancore ever set foot on the soil of Changanacherry, the spirits of the 'Pillamar' would break free from their bondage and return to Thiruvananthapuram!
(The author is a conservation architect and history buff)
