Meet the Kollam family that owns the 'Elephant Rock', and the folktale behind it

Kollam: True to its name, the ancestral property of the Aanappara family at Mudiyoorkonam in Chengalam, Oyoor, in Kollam district is home to an 'Aanappara' - a rock formation that strikingly resembles an elephant. Over the years, the rock appears to have grown in size, though this impression is likely due to gradual soil erosion at its base.

The elephant-shaped rock, which resembles a fully grown tusker, stands at the lower end of a four-acre sloping property. M Thomas Kutty (72), one of the heirs to the land and the fifth of six children of Aanapparayil Abraham and Annamma, shared a local legend associated with the formation of the rock. 

"Many years ago, a Brahmin man was passing through the area, which was then a sloping tract covered in dense vegetation, including bamboo," said Thomas Kutty. "An elephant was feeding on the bamboo when the Namboodiri arrived. Disturbed by his presence, the animal tried to scare him off.

"But the Namboodiri was unfazed. He decided to give a fitting reply and cursed the elephant. 'You will remain a rock until my return,' said the man and went his way. The elephant became a rock, and the Namboodiri never returned to free the animal of the curse," said Thomas.

No one knows the truth about the legend. But the resemblance is striking. Thomas pointed out the head, projecting forehead, ears and eye sockets of the rock elephant.

Rubber and other crops are cultivated on the land, but bamboo still grows around the rock. The family property was partitioned among the children of Abraham and Annamma, but the four-cent area where the elephant rock is located has been preserved as common property. 

Two of Thomas's elder brothers, Mathew and Koshy, are no more. His other siblings are Kochumman, Jacob and Kunjamma. Even though the inheritors of the property blasted several other rocks on the property to build fences, they saved Aanappara for future generations. "Several people own elephants, but only we have an elephant rock," said the family members.