Kalliyana Pally,

KALLIYANATHA PALLY ,Kalliyana Pally, Korome Mosque, Makkiyad Mosque

 

Kalliyana Pally is the oldest mosque in Wynad and the Mopla colony round it consisted of people whose ancestors came from Kadathanad (part of Kurumbranad Taluk).

The date when the mosque was originally built cannot now be ascertained: but as Edachana Nayar and Alancheri Nambiar were chieftains appointed by the Kottayam Raja after he conquered the Vedar rulers, it may be presumed that the Sheik appeared in Wynad during the Kottayam supremacy. Every religion tends towards the same goal and the Hindu and the Mussulman joined in venerating the saintly Sheik a sign of the spirit of the times when all religions were tolerated.

This is a mosque, the proper name of which is Kalliyana Pally, derived from Kalliyanam marriage and so called in commemoration of the day on which the site of the mosque was granted by the Nayar at whose house there was a kalli- yanam ceremony on that day.

The Legend

Once upon a time, as the story goes, a Sheik was found by the Kurichiyans of the locality seated on a rock near a stream in the Perinchola forest with two tigers, one on either side. The Kurichiyans reported the discovery at Chovvel Edam, the house of Alanchery Moopil Nambiar, who proceed-

ed to the spot with his neighbours. The Sheik was not to be seen but the next day the Nambiar again went in qiiest of the Sheik, who was then found on a hill. On being asked who he was and what he wanted, he said he had no special object in visiting the place and that he was a traveller. It struck the Nambiar that there was something saintly in this personage and desirous of testing him, he asked the Sheik if he could cure a lady in his house who had been ailing for six years and who was also blind. The Sheik asked for water to be brought and the Nambiar supplied milk. The Sheik repeated certain mantrams (in- cantations) over it and on the same being administered to the lady, she recovered her health and her eye-sight.

The Nambiar asked the Sheik what he could do for him, when he applied for sufficient ground to build a mosque and he pointed out the junction of the three desams (Edavaka, Ozhakodi and Edachana) as the place he desired. Edachana Nayar, Alanchery Nambiar, Vadikolla Nambiar and Mechilatan Nayar came to the spot and formally made a gift of the site to the Sheik, who then disappeared suddenly.

A few days afterwards, the Sheik re- appeared with a few fakirs, who built a mosque, which was an unpretentious affair at first, but in course of time, the Nayars of the locality finding that offerings to the mosque resulted in the accomplishment of their desires granted more lands.

The Sheik and all the fakirs died, the last of them handing over the deeds relating to the mosque-site and the lands to a woman known as Kakka Pathu who was living with her husband in the neighbourhood. They went to Nadapuram and handed the deeds (cadjans) to a Mopla named Ekoten Tharuvayi, who came to Wynad and erected a substantial building. He thus became the proprietor and his descendants are the present trustees of this mosque