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Gramam - Kizhakkanchery

Location : near Vadakkancherry, Palakkad District. 

This is an important village near Vadakkancherry. It had about 150 houses in earlier days. The people of this village believe that they came and settled down here from Tanjore. There is an Uttaravahini river flowing by the side of this village. There was a Maha Ganapathi temple on its shores. This temple was very famous in the entire area. Sankara Jyotsiar who was a minister of Ranjit Singh has built a Kamakshi temple in this village. The story is that he undertook penance in Kanchi Kamakshi Temple and wanted to have a Prathishta of Kamakshi in Kerala. Since available folk tales indicate that he did not belong to this village, the reason for his choice is not clear. There was a system of a village chief called Adhikari in this village. Possibly they ruled over the village and looked after its administration, one of them Mr. K.G.Vaidyanathan is called Kariakar Vaitha. The word Kariakar means manager of a King. There is a grand car festival (Ratholsavam) being celebrated in the village Samooham sometime in the month of Makaram. The Deity is taken through the gramam and ends in Arattu (Sacred bathing of the deity in the river). The other festivals celebrated by the village Samooham are Ganesh Chathurthi, Navarathri, and Founding day of the temple. The vela in the nearby Nedumbarath Bhagavathi temple is also celebrated in the Gramam. The villagers have built a Kalyana Mandapam of their own. There were many Vedic and Sanskrit scholars belonging to the village. The most famous was Rasanga Sastrigal .His son Subramanya Ganapathigal was a great expert in Gana and Jada of Vedas. Sri Harihara Vadhyar the grand son of Rasanga Vadhyar is an eminent Vedic scholar of the present generation. The other important family in the village is that of Adhikari Ganapathi iyer. 

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