write up by C. Gouridasan Nair(The Hindu)
A 934-page book packages the history, geography and culture of a
village which has 25,000 inhabitants.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
How much history can a village with a population of around 25,000 possibly
have? If the question is put to Vellanad Ramachandran, a BSNL employee, he
would present you with a copy of ‘Vellanad: History and Evolution,' a 934-page
book into which he has weaved in a fascinating account of his native village's
geography, history and culture.
Mr.
Ramachandran, a geology graduate with no formal training in the writing of
history, had spent the last one decade and roughly Rs.1.25 lakh of his earnings
to write the history of Vellanad, which is a rare work of its kind even in
these days of heightened awareness about local history. ‘‘I have always been
interested in history and folklore and used to write articles and present
papers on both these topics. That was how I decided to take up the challenge of
writing Vellanad's history,'' says Mr. Ramachandran.
The
extensively researched book, in which some 130 references have been cited, is
an attempt to place Vellanad, a village to the east of the State capital, in
the framework of South Indian history. From the stone edicts to the
contemporary political polarisations, the book takes an exhaustive look at the
land, language, people, crops, cultivation habits past and present and the
changes that have come in almost every facet of life in the village over time.
The book
is simultaneously a dictionary of place names and a dispassionate document of
the cultural and developmental history of Vellanad. The different communities
that have inhabited the area from early times, the language of the ‘Kani' tribe
and the plainspeople, the local festivals, important families and individuals
at different times and the songs that used to be sung on different occasions
have all found a place in the book which could be said to be lacking in the
rigour of an academic historian, but is notable for the wealth of information
that it contains.
video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYcxZ-xmI3Y&feature=youtu.bevideo
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