Thunchan Gurumadhom

Thunchan Gurumadhom Across the lush green fields, two kms. from Chittur town on the banks of river, Sokanashini, an old building where Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, regarded as the father of Malayalam language, lived in the 16th century. People call it Gurumadhom and it is here that he transcreated the two great Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, for the common people with the subtle and meaningful mingling of Sanskrit and Dravidian strems of the prevailing language and literature. Ezhuthachan evolved an altogether new texture for the Malayalam language. As the story goes, Thunchath Ezhuthachan, on his way back from his sojourn in Tamil Nadu, had a stop-over here with his disciples. The tranquility of the place made him settle down here for the rest of his life. Occupied by Tamil Brahmins who perhaps are the descendents of the disciples of the Acharya, the gramam still has an old look and on both sides of the building are temples of Sree Rama and Siva. The street with long arrays of Agraharams has all the charm of antiquity that we should love to preserve. At the Gurumadhom, a Srichakra and a few idols worshipped by him, the stylus, the wooden slippers and a few old manuscripts are exhibited. It is on Vijayadasami day that the memorial gets the maximum number of visi- 40 41 tors with hundreds of children brought here for a ritualistic initiation into learning. Photograph

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