Kunchan Nambiar's memorial and house, Lakkidi, Palghat

Amid the lush green paddy fields of Palghat district is the little village of Lakkidi, known as the birthplace of Kunchan Nambiar, one of Malayalam's greatest poets and satirists. Kunchan Nambiar was born on May 5th, 1700 and spent his very early years in Killikurissimangalam. His youth was spent at Ambalapuzha near Alleppey. He conceived the "thullal" form of  dance recital  when he was insulted at a "koothu" for falling asleep while playing the mizhavu (drum). He brought his own essence into this very creative art form and, to this day, the three forms of "thullal" namely, ottan thullal, seethankan thullal and parayan thullal are performed at various temples festivals and important stage performances.  He used the ottanthullal to parody prominent people and to spread  social messages.
His house, "Kalakathu Bhavanam" in Lakkidi - Killikurissimangalam- is maintained flawlessly. Read on for a description of our visit.

We visited the place last December and the thirty-five kilometer drive from Palghat town to Lakkidi was worth every litre of petrol we used up.
There is a  magnificent entrance with two or three small rooms and then, there is the massive courtyard with a stage at one end, an office opposite to the actual house, and the memorial erected in the poet's memory. Kunchan Nambiar died in 1770.

The walls of the house are thick and made of baked clay and are exactly in the condition they were 300 years ago. There is a "nadumuttam" or internal open courtyard not only for ventilation but also to demarcate the rooms. The old kitchen is well-preserved  with an opening for the well which has a pulley to draw water. The "mizhaavu", which used to be his musical instrument, is displayed in the room with the nadumuttam - you can see the drum below.

There is a corridor which leads to three rooms including the one in which the great man was born and there is a huge room at the end where all sorts of chores including grinding, sifting of grains were done. The corridor also has an ancient wooden staircase leading to another corridor with three rooms upstairs. Here we can see models of the three "thullal" forms.

There is no entry fee to see this building which has been so magnifcently preserved for  future generations and, I feel they should charge a nominal fee which will ensure that this is well taken care of in the coming centuries as well.

There is a Shiva temple very close to Kunchan Nambiar's residence and the drive from Palghat to Lakkidi is a trip through the famous greenery of Kerala.
That's me waving from the upstairs window!

How to get there:
The nearest railway station is Ottapalam about eight kms from Lakkidi. The Kunchan memorial is about 31 kms from Palghat and it takes about 90 minutes by car to reach the memorial.The nearest airport is Coimbatore which is about 95 kms from Lakkidi.
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