MALAPPURAM: THE titular head of Namboothiri Brahmins in Kerala, Azhvanchery Raman Valiya Thamprakkal, 88, passed away at Azhvanchery Mana in Athavanadu in the district at 10.45 am on Friday, Azhvanchery Thamprakkal is considered as the supreme religious head of the Namboodiri Brahmins of Kerala. He was also considered supreme in deciding matters relating to religion, caste, and society. In olden days, each king in Malabar was formally crowned by the supremo of the Azhvanchery Mana, the ancestral home of Azhvanchery Thamprakkal.
Thamprakkal, who once ruled the region surrounding Athavnadu, was the trustee of almost all the temples in Travancore and Malabar.
According to the traditional belief, Parasuraman created land between Gokarnam and Kanyakumari, and donated the 64 villages in the region to Brahmins. Among these, 32 villages are in the Malayalam-speaking region of Kerala and Parasuraman appointed Azhvanchery family as the supremo of all these 32 Namboothiri villages in Kerala.
Azhvanchery Thamprakkal were also great patrons of mathematics and astronomy and under the patronage of Thambrakkal, the region had developed into a leading centre of vedic learning in the state. In the ‘Brahmandapuranam’ by Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, Azhvanchery Thamprakkal had been mentioned as ‘Netranarayanan’. Ezhuthachan had written that he composed ‘Brahmandapuranam’ under the instruction of the then Thamprakkal.
It is believed that branches of the Azhvanchery family have also spread into erstwhile Travancore. The Malabar Manual of William Logan says, almost all the female members and many male members of different royal families and chieftains’ families including Azhvanchery Thamprakkal, fled to Travancore to escape the brutalities of Tipu Sultan’s army and temporarily settled down in different parts of Travancore. It is believed that the place name Athavanadu itself is derived from ‘Azhvanchery Thamprakkalvazhum nadu’
The cremation was held on the Mana premises on Friday night. K T Jaleel MLA and District Collector P M Francis visited the Mana.
Thambrakkal is survived by wife Arya Antharjanam, son Krishnan Thambrakkal, three daughters, Savithri, Lalitha and Pathmaja.