KUNNAMKULAM

The ancient name of Kunnamkulam was ‘Kunnamkulangarae’, which was the capital of Thalappilly thaluk under ‘cochin Rajas’. It is said that after Tipu Sultan’s invasion, many refugees from Chattukulanghara , found shelter in kottapaddy and kunnamkullam. The feudal kings of kunnamkullam welcomed all powerful merchants of Chattukullanghara. During that period the influence of Tamil was prominent in Malayalam language, so the name was “Kunnamkulangarae “ .According to archeologists , the ‘ Kunnamkulam’ got it ‘s name because of the hills and ponds present in the area.

There are hills present on east, named ‘Adupputtykunnu’, on west it is ‘Kizhoorkunnu’, on south ‘ missionkunnu’ and finally on north it is ‘Pokullumkunnu’. Among them biggest hill is ‘Adupputtykunnu’. For the past 59 years, the chamber of commerce, works for the welfare of merchants in Kunnamkulam. All the works of this chamber is highly admirable. Apart from the business circle, they have their fingerprints on all the social, cultural activities.Kunnamkulam town has unique position at the trading area. It is famous for printing industry in Kerala. Kunnamkulam is 22 km from Thrissur. In Kerala Kunnamkulam is synonymous with spurious (or Duplicate in common parlance) items.

Kunnamkulam is the major business center, north of Thrissur in Kerala. The small town in Thrissur district has a business history of more than 300 years. The Arabians, Greeks, and Persians left their footprints on this land years ago.

We have to tell something more about the printing industry of Kunnamkulam. ’Vidyarathnaprabha’ is the first printing press in Kunnamkulam, founded by “Paramel Etoop” at 1860.and there was another press named A.R.P founded by ‘Pullikottil Etoop’ .They published a newspaper named ‘Aathmaposhini’ during 1894.The famous poet “Mahakavi Vallathol” and “Desabhimani Ramakrishnapilla” worked for this newspaper. And during this period many more newspapers were published in ‘kunmmamkullam’. The main of them were,”suriyani sabhakahalam” by C.Mathan ,”sabhakahalam” by Pullikottil Avarachan and etc……

A lot of legends of literature are related to Kunnamkulam. Late Sri. Kaikullanghara Ramavaryar, Late Sri. Nallapattu Narayana menon, Late Sri.Kannipayur Sankaran Namboothiripadu.Late Sri.C.V.Sreeraman is some among them. Kunnamkulam have its own position in Athletics. The first Volleyball court in India was built and played in Y.M.C.A Kunnamkulam. A lot of All India players of volleyball and basket ball are from Kunnamkulam.