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Gramam - Elapully

Location : Palakkad District. 

Elappully is 12 Kms away from Palakkad town. Initially there were one hundred Iyer houses, which has reduced to 30 at present. All the families of this village trace their origin to Ganapathy agraharam near Kumbakonam. The old timers remember of a fire, which ravaged the village. The village has two temples - the main temple is that of Navaneetha Krishnan and the other important temple is that of Bala Parameshwari established by Koti Sastrigal. Among the eminent persons of the village were great Vedic scholar Sri E. P. Subrahmanya Iyer who translated Soundarya Lahari into Malayalam, another great Vedic scholar Sri Ramakrishna Sastrigal, the industrialist Sri E. K. Narayana Iyer, the educational expert N. Subrahmanyam who worked with Annie Beasant, the Mridanga maestros Sri E.M.Panchapakesan and Elapully Krishna Iyer, Ghatam maestro Sri E. N. Balakrishnan. Vaikunta Ekadasi is celebrated for five days in a grand scale in this village. On the Ekadasi day is Ratholsavam. 

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History

The term 'Iyer' is derived from 'Iyya' which means 'Sir' in Tamil and which might have beemight have been derived from 'Arya' of Sanskrit, which means a 'gentleman'. In the earliest known work dealing with grammar in Tamil - tholkappiyam (meaning old epic), the meaning of 'iyya' is given as 'a learned individual'. Iyers were initially confined to Tamil Nadu. Though the majority of them chose to stay in Tamil Nadu itself, some of them migrated to neighboring states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Over the years these migrants built up their own individual culture and established an identity of their own. In Kerala, they are commonly referred to as Pattars where as Iyers of Tamil

Cuisine

Traditionally, Iyers are vegetarians. Rice is the staple food. The dishes commonly eaten with rice are Sambhar, RasamSambhar, Rasam, Pitla, Moru koottan, Vattal Kozhambu, Poricha Kootu, Kootu Kari and on special occasions, different Payasams. Their style of cooking depended on the use of til oil or Groundnut oil and mainly consisted of the liberal use of Tur Dal. Rice powder was also used as thickening agent by them in most of their preparations. For pungency they added green chilies or dry red chilies.  The Kerala vegetarian Cuisine was that of the Namboodiris and their famous dishes were Kalan, Rasakalan, Olan, Eriseri, Pulungary Mulagoosiam, MolaguVellam, several Upperis and a host of prathamans. Their major stress has been on the liberal use of coconut, coconut oil and pepper. The Kerala Iyers modified their traditional dishes based on the knowledge gained in the Namboothiri houses. The result was a really divine cuisine, which was the mixture of both styles of cooking and balanced