Thiruvananthapuram: Ayroor village located in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta has been recently renamed to ‘Ayirur Kathakali Gramam’. The village is well known for the 200 year old Kathakali heritage.
After making a continuous effort of over 12 years, the name of Ayroor village has been changed to ‘Ayirur Kathakali Gramam’.
The dance form Kathakali originated in Kerala over 300 years ago, that is distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor dancers. It is more like the classical dance arts that synthesizes music, vocal performers, and story play, choreography and hand and facial gestures used to express ideas.
Panchayat president Ambili Prabhakaran said that at the request of the District Kathakali cCub, a resolution was passed in 2010 by the Grama Panchayat to rename the village as Ayroor Kathakali Gramam.
It is to be noted that the village has a nearly 200 year old Kathakali heritage. The dance form bought a revolution by letting the downtrodden section of society to participate in it.
The young children started showing interest in the dance form and engaged in it and so a seven day festival day festival was observed in the first week of January. The festival is held on the riverbanks of Pampa and also 20,000 children turn up every year at the club in the village to learn about Kathakali.
These factors helped to influence the state and central governments to approve the request of renaming the village. Earlier, in 2018 the proposal for change in name was unanimously approved by members of the Kerala Names Authority, a statutory body headed by the state Revenue Minister. Later, when the proposal reached the Surveyor General of India, it faced hindrances due to spelling of the village and thus, resulted in the process getting delayed.
Moreover, the process of renaming started again and the state government was in agreement with the name recommended by the Surveyor General of India.
Finally, the MHA this year on march approved the renaming of the village.