The scenic village on the shores of the Shokanashini river still retains an old world charm that once attracted Thunchathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, the father of Malayalam language and literature. He spent his final days here, translating the epics, Ramayana and Mahabharatha, to a new language derived out of Sanskrit and Tamil. Legend has it that Ezhuthachan was returning after a sojourn in the present Tamil Nadu region along with his disciples and found Thekkegramam an ideal place to settle and give vent to his creative impulses.
A four-century-old building, renovated in recent years and rechristened Gurumadom, still attracts researchers to the village, where Ezhuthachan spent his final days. “The Thunchanparambu at Tirur in Malappuram won worldwide attention due to the efforts of writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair. But there was none to highlight Thekkegramam’s significance,” says Rajan Nair, a local person who made several representations to the State government to make the village a cultural study centre. Located hardly two km from Chittur town, the village, with several agraharams and temples, occasionally attracts literature buffs. “The village is crying for attention despite its rich legacy. It is yet to have a memorial for the poet,” says S. Guruvayurappan, a Chittur-based conservationist and educationist.
Mr. Nair says hundreds of children are initiated into the world of letters here every Vijayadashami. The event is accompanied by Ramayana recital and quiz. The Gurumadom is run using the meagre income from the event. Inside the Gurumadom, a stylus, a srichackra, and a pair of wooden slippers used by the poet are kept for public viewing along with some old manuscripts. It also has a library with rare books. After a fire gutted the madom partially some years ago, the local unit of the Nair Service Society is maintaining it.
Local people want the government to take over 20 cents of land at Japappara, a hill area near the village where the poet used to meditate, and construct a fitting memorial for him. Another demand is the setting up of a campus of Thuchanthu Ezhuthachan Malayalam University at Thekkegramam.
