Thanneer Kayal

A “Kayal” is a backwater expanse consisting of canals, coconut groves, a variety of bird life and cultivated lands.

Thanneer Kayal’s cultivable paddy fields start from Padoor and Thirunellore in the western side. The Kayal lands extends to both the Venkitangu and Mullasseri Panchayaths.

A deep trench or canal is opened to the Canolly Canal at our border with Thirunellore (see “Idiyan Chira”).

A variety of bird life still survives in these lands, although the paddy cultivation has long been in a state of neglect. The heavy infection of weeds etc. was affecting the farming until recently.

Now the situation is beginning to change and cultivation is slowly returning. The Canal in the Thanneer Kayal is now widened and strengthened with formidable dikes. It is connected to Peechi Reservoir agriculture water distribution network, so water is made available for agricultural needs during the summer months.

Zone: Idiyan Chira

Going to Peringadu (or Thirunellore) was almost a routine thing that I did during my childhood. Many of our close relatives stayed there.

Peringadu is the neighboring village to the north and lies along the Canolly Canal. The mud road (which it used to be) touches the Canal while it approached our northern border.

All the time I walked by foot, as everyone else did. The exception was a rare bicycle rider but very few owned a bicycle in that age.

The Thanneer Kayal, lying east of Padoor, is extended to Thirunellore. A deep trench that carried the excess rain water from the Kayal to the Canolly Canal was separating Padoor from Thirunellore.

The Idiyan Chira (literally the sunken weir or water trap) connects the two villages across this trench. Basically the Chira was constructed to trap the sweet water in the trench so this could be utilized for the Kayal agriculture. It also keeps the saline waters of the Canal from getting entry to the trench and thereby sully the paddy fields’ fertility.

Only during the monsoon months the Chira’s barriers (made of wooden planks) are kept open, so as to regulate the water level at the trench and the Kayal.

The narrow wooden beams - used to hold together the planks - at the top made up for a walking bridge. It was more like taking a little walk on a trapeze; but that was the fun thing to do if you were a kid. In the space between arrays of planks and beams, they used to fill with mud; which never remained a level mass. That is why perhaps people started calling it the Idiyan Chira (sunken water trap).

The Idiyan Chira is now replaced by a modern bridge complete with a fully aligned road; so both the villages are now connected by an automobile route.

Zone: Pandikasala (the Warehouse)

As a child it was a daily ritual going down to the Seethi Thangal’s pandikasala (or godown) in the afternoon. It situated right next to Pulikkakkadavu; where none of us goes unless one want to cross the canal (which you don’t normally do or require).

The pandikasala housed the branch post office in our village. This post office first used to be the branch of Chowghat (renamed Chavakkad) main post office but later on assigned under the Mullasseri. This required that all the letters bore an additional address line showing the main post office (thus we write “(Via) Chowghat” or “(Via) Mullasseri”).

The post office is kept open for two hours (3 – 5 in the evening); a post master and a postman were the employees. The postman had to collect our incoming letters from the main post office as well as deliver the outgoings. He used his bicycle to do this but in case the man doesn’t know cycling he had to walk 4 k.ms up and down from Mullasseri (read no buses to Padoor at that time).

Once the letter bag reached our post office, our postman has to affix the date stamp on each of the incoming letters. Then he used to read out the names of the addressees. The village folks who gathers around his at the time of this ritual could collect letters for their family; or letters meant for their neighbors. If you don’t do that, the letter gets delivered at your house at the postman’s convenience.

As children it was fun going to check out if our family had any letters (most of the days you don’t get one) but some of us made it a point to be regularly present at the time anyway.
This was the only time when the pandikasala building appeared to be with any life. Otherwise it had all the appearance of a perfect ghost-house.

Apart from the post office, the pandikasala had another large room, with an array of wooden planks positioned together for an entrance. The planks were fastened by a thick iron lever running through them on both sides and which were latched to a lock fitted to the central plank. The room remained locked perennially. Two windows type shop-counters were seen on the sides but these too remained tightly shut.

Curious sounds were coming out of the room even in the broad day light hours. But we know these were coming from the bunch of flying bats that were breeding freely in the safety of the darkness of the perpetually closed room.

A small room with a single door and a single window at the western end was used by Mr. Seethi Thangal as his office was in intermittent use. The never in use upstairs consisted of a decent sized hall that could hold 40 – 50 people easily.

The baked clay tiled roofs, bare red laterite walls and the wooden ceilings had all given the building a perfect classical look. Contrary to the ghostly atmosphere and appearance, the elders say that the building used to be the centre of active commerce when the water transport was relied upon for movement of goods. The building – which I had seen in my childhood - was built post the 1941 Cyclone when the original building gave in to the nature’s forces.

The glorious days were well past; however, the existence of our post office ensured that pandikasala continued to be a signpost until 1980s. This was the time when the post office was shifted to a new location having been upgraded in to a Sub Post Office (Pincode #680524).

A new building replaced the Pandikasala about 10 years ago but the newly built Pulikkakkadavu bridge alignment road completely obscured its sight. Sadly, this new building too thereafter remained in a state of disuse.

The Chettuva River – The boarder; the gateway and the Lifeline

The Chettuva River, the historical waterway, for some reason is now known as Canolly Canal - or the Canoli Canal whichever way you spell it – provided the secure line of boarder at the western part of our village. So the Canal does to so many other villages along its route.

The canal runs almost parallel to the Arabian Sea Coast from Chettuva to Kodungallore – the nearest coast point being roughly some 5 – 6 kilometers away to the west from Padoor. The water is saline; and have for centuries helped the military troop and material movements as well as the commercial inland waterway shipping.

In fact the waterway was originally called by the name "Chetwai (or Chettuvayi, Chetuvay, Chetva or Chetuva) River" and used to be one of the three important seaports under the Zamorins (Samuthiris); Calicut and Ponnani being the other two. The river and Chetwai port were the scenes to some historic events and battles involving the Zamorins, the Cochin State, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British.

How this river came to be associated with Henry Valentine Canolly (1806 - 1855) who was the Collector and Magistrate of Malabar District during the period 1841 - 1855.



Another canal goes by the same name which on record was ordered built by H V Canolly, which was completed at 1848, according to Malabar Manual Vol. I. This latter canal connected Nilambur (where Kerala’s first teak plantations were situated) with the commercial port of Beypore during the imperial time.

The Chettuvayi river connected with the large fresh water lake previously called the Trichur Lake. In fact today this lake is come to known as the Kole Lands extending from todays Thrissur Taluk to Chavakkad Taluk. The Malabar Manual describes the Chetwai River thus:-

"N. Lat. 10o 31', E. Lon. 76o 6'. The mouth of this river and about six miles on its course lie entirely in British territory and for about two miles more it forms the boundary between British territory and the Native State of Cochin. At the end of this eight miles the river widens out into a lake, partly natural and partly artificial."

A dam separating the saline river from the fresh water lake, thus protecting the valuable agricultural land, was said to have been built by the joint efforts of the Rulers of Cochin and Zamorin. Incidentally the Trichur Lake formed the border between the Zamorin's and the Cochin territories at the time. This masonry dam was later breached by the British during 1802 but filled the following year. Attempts were made at rebuilding the dam 1823 & 1842. This happens to be todays Enamakkal Dam (or bund). The surrounding locality is now come to known as Kettungal (Kettu - കെട്ട്- meaning a bund).

The Malabar Manual also described about proposals to construct a new dam down the river at Chetwai between 1855 and 1858 which were later abandoned.

The canal brought us merchandise up until the late 1970’s. There was a thriving production of coir fiber industry along the canal. In fact lot of land was reclaimed out of the canal by filling with the coir fiber waste, don’t ask me if that was legal, by private owners who did coir processing alongside. The coir products were for most part transported through the waterways. The main commercial centre - in my memory - was Kandassankadavu, but I heard elders telling me that in their times the canal used to connect us with such cities as Kodungallore, Thrissur and Ponnani.

Perhaps the only merchandise that still comes through the canal is some supply of fresh fish. In our younger ages it used to be the sole route for the fish to get to Padoor. The fish vendors bought their stuff from Puthiya Kadappuram where the sea going timber boats brought their catches. Our retail fish vendors would bring the fish using their canoes. They then carry the load in their shoulders to sell it in the village market or by going round the village. The male vendors used “kavu” (a wooden shoulder balance from either side of which a pair of “kotta” hanged) and “kotta” (basket). The females used a “kotta” which they carry on their head.