THE KURUVINAKUNNEL FAMILY

Mankind has this propensity to drift through life in blissful ignorance of some of the precious gifts bestowed on him by God. Perhaps this penchant gave birth to the expression - 'count your blessings!' One such blessing is the warmth of belonging to a 'Family'. Those of us who belong to the Kuruvinakunnel family are indeed blessed by the grace of the almighty God and should take pride that we are able to trace our roots way back through the ages, back through centuries.

The Kuruvinakunnel family name and the original tharavadu was founded by Kochu Thomman Valliappan and Thresiamma Valliamma in the late 18th century at a property bought from a Nair family in Edamattom. But the root does not originate there. It goes further back, a long way back, in time and in location.

The old traditional families of Kerala were inclined to adopt family names which had a direct bearing on the surroundings around their dwellings. The names of families and their surroundings are so intriguingly intertwined that not only do they sound exotic, they also help in tracing family roots. Prior to Kuruvinakunnel, the family name was Moolechalil and they resided at Ampara, near Bharananganam. Moolechalil was an offshoot of the Chalil family who resided at Vattoli Kadavu, also in Bharananganam. Chalil family came from a mother family called Arackal. The Arackal family would therefore be the family to whom we can trace our roots.

The Arackal family line winds it's way back through the ages, through centuries, all the way back to a time when an Apostle in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, called Thomas, listened with rapt attention to the words of his Master as he said to his disciples, "Go ye to the four corners of the world and spread my word."

Our ancient ancestors were agriculturalists. The lands they cultivated were not the backyards around the houses or the fields nearby. They trekked into the mountainous jungles in the interior of their land, before Kerala came into being. Long before explorers from Portugal and Spain set out over the oceans and seas seeking new lands to conquer, our pioneering anoestors living along the Malabar coastal region were venturing into the wilderness of the jungles of the Western ghats, in perennial search of more and more land to cultivate a precious commodity that was well known even in Biblical times Pepper - for this was the land of spices! Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, they all came seeking pepper, and they all came to the Malabar coast. Specifically, to one particular spot - A port known in the ancient times as 'Muziris' Today it is known as Kodungalloor.