ALAPPUZHA : After the long demands made by the admirers of Ayurveda and the Hortus Malabaricus Trust, the state Archeology Department has declared the remains of the famous Ayurveda physician Itty Achuthan, coauthor of Hortus Malabaricus, a protected monument. The department issued government order to protect the monument. The ‘kuriala’, a small wooden room used by the scholar; a botanical garden; the ‘narayam’, wooden pen using to write; palm leaf writings; a basket made of cane; the silk and bangle gifted by the erstwhile King of Kochi are in the kuriala.
According to Archeology Department Director G Premkumar, the 8.5 cent land owned by the Kollattu family in the Kadakarapally panchayat in Alappuzha was handed over to the Department. The Department had published preliminary gazette on July 2013 to make it a protected monument. Some of the family members raised protest, but the government negotiated with them and declared the monument a protected one this month, he said. Premkumar said they have plans to construct the monument in the land and to protect the ‘Kuriala’ intact. The Department directed the engineer to prepare a project. The fund for the protection will be allocated in the next financial year, he said.
The Archaeological Department started initiatives to take over the land a few years ago, but the land was pledged by the present owners in a Co-operative Bank. Later, the state government released the 8.5 cent land from the bank burden and published gazette. Itty Achuthan had participated in the compilation work of Hortus Malabaricus, a book on the flora of Kerala in the mid 17 century. The Dutch Malabar governor Hendrik Van Rheede had written the book and it was published in the second half of 17 century at Amsterdam.
The property is now owned by a fourth generation member of Itty Achuthan’s family in Kadakarapally panchayat near Cherthala. The land owner pledged the land in two cooperative banks and have taken lakhs as loan. After the death of the land owner his wife and children are living in the house.While the Kuriala is situated in 66 cent land and the botanical garden grown by Itty Achuthan is in 26 cents, the Archeology Department has taken over only 8.5 cents of land from the entire property to protect the monument and botanical garden.Hortus Malabaricus Trust secretary A N Chidambaran said that the trust had been working to protect the monument for more than two decades. The Trust has submitted proposals to construct an ayurvedic museum and a research centre about ayurvedic medicine, he said.