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Fun ‘n’ frolic at royal gathering

CELEBRATION TIME: Members of the Zamorin family regale themselves during a get-together at their ancestral house at Kottakkal on Sunday.

MALAPPURAM: When five-year-old Abhay Varma bared his chest imitating his screen hero Shah Rukh Khan, the modest gathering in the courtyard of Kottakkal Kizhakke Kovilakam burst out laughing. Little Abhay, like several other children, had enough stuff in him to entertain the members of the royal Zamorin family at their annual gathering at Kottakkal on Sunday.

The death of a senior member in the Kovilakam two days ago took the sheen off the programme, which had been planned on a mega scale. But the nostalgic zeal of the Zamorin family to get together at their ancestral home in Kottakkal prompted them to hold the family mela for the seventh consecutive year.

Unlike the previous melas, Sunday’s programme started on a sober note, paying obeisance to the dead member in a silent prayer. The eldest member of Kizhakke Kovilakam K.C. Anujathi Thampuratti lit the inaugural lamp together with senior member K.C. Kuttiyettan Raja.

Offering felicitations, Punnathur Muraleedharan Raja from Chirakkal Kovilakam, Kannur, pointed out that it was reunion of a family that ruled the region for over 1,000 years. “This Kovilakam is a treasure house for those who love history; and for aficionados of the arts and literature, this is a cradle,” he said remembering the good old days of the Kovilakam.

For Rohit Menon, a young engineer from HAL, Bangalore, the reunion gave great pleasure and satisfaction. “Meeting our family members spread across the country on an occasion like this is a great thing,” he said. At the gathering were members from distant places like Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore.

Apart from the Kizhakke Kovilakam at Kottakkal, the Zamorin family has two other branches: the Mankavu Kovilakam and the Thiruvannur Kovilakam. The eldest member of these three Kovilakams will be the Zamorin. The current Zamorin, P.K.S. Raja, belongs to Thiruvannur Kovilakam.

The 300-year-old Kottakkal Kovilakam has about 250 members. However, only five families are currently living at the Kovilakam. The members of the Kovilakam family were the progeny of Sanskrit scholar and poet Manorama

Thampuratti and her two brothers. Some historians claim that it was after this Sanskrit scholar that a Malayalam newspaper was named.

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