Panthirukulam tourism circuit in the works, blueprint ready

Palakkad: The project report for a tourism circuit based on the Parayi Petta Panthirukulam legend has been submitted to the government. The project is to be implemented in Palakkad and Thrissur districts.

The plan was drafted after an initiative was taken by Speaker of the state assembly, P Ramakrishnan. An estimated Rs 113.28 crore is to be spend on the first phase and Rs 76.5 crore in the second stage of the project which has been included in the Swadeshi Darshan programme of the Central government.

'Parayi Petta Panthirukulam' literally means the '12 clans born of a Pariah woman.' The ancient Kerala legend says 12 different castes had its origin from a low-caste woman.

The project, which envisages a cultural tourism circuit, targets the comprehensive development of temples and monuments associated with Mezhathol Agnihotri to Vayillakunnilappan in the Panthirukulam legend, as also the mosques linked to early Islamic scholars. Mezhathol was the first child of the parayi of the legend.

The draft was drawn up by Dr Vellinezhi Achuthan Kutty, chief co-ordinator at Vellinezhi Art Village. It was D Kamalamma, former deputy director of tourism department, Palakkad district, who began the primary work on the circuit. She had assigned Kutty to draw up the draft and appointed C Vijayakumar as architect.

A team led by them visited places of importance in the Panthirukulam legend and collected data. The draft was readied after also considering the satellite survey undertaken by different institutions.

Letters of consent for permission to lend land on utilisation basis for development have been obtained from places of worship, temple administrators and cultural centres and have been submitted along with the report.