"Inayathalam" is the Tamil word for web site. It means 'a base to relate' . When we relate only we find meaning and joy in life. If we don't relate, we cease to exist as for as others are concerned. So, relating is one of the great values of mankind.

" Vellathanaya malarneettam maanthar-tham
Ullathanaya uyarvu." - Kural

The height of the lotus is the height of the water, but that of man is the height of his heart. And the height of man depends on his relations. "Ullathinudaya uyarvu uravukalinaal."

And the modern information technology provides us with unimaginable opportunities to relate with people in the remotest corners of the world even and has made the planet a global village. And not to avail this great opportunity is to get alienated and to confine within oneself and shrink into one's own shells of false comfort. And here we, the children of Erayumanthurai, making use of this IT explosion, come to relate with you our villagers, friends and well wishers and build up a healthy relation for our mutual growth, the growth of the world and of humanity especially.

And you are welcome to "Erayumanthurai". This is no official site of any official organ, but a maiden venture of one of her sons who always wanted to launch a site for his village to reach out to friends and well wishers of our village besides one and all in our village. It is a humble tribute to Erayumanthurai.

The place we are born into and brought up is only next to our mother. Our lives begin in our mother's womb and for ten months we are safely there. Afterwards we are mostly in the bosom of our mother villages. From then onwards she provides the space and other necessary climates for our growth. Our childhood and boyhood companions contribute a greater share along with our siblings in our character formation. The traits of the village will certainly have a greater impact on our lives all along.

Let us begin this site with an invocation of praise on this beautiful hamlet:


" Iniyavale, Erayumanthurai thaye,

Iyarkkayin ilamai nirainthavale

Irupporkkinbam alippavale

Iranthor unnai ezhanthanare.


Thamiraparani unthan thazh thazhuva

Arabikkadal unthan thalai varuda

Kadarkkattu unaiyentrum aravanaikka

Kannai parippathu unnazhake.


Ilamkalayar,ilam meenavar

Kayalvizhi mathar kavin mihu mangayar

Kathiravan oliyinil kadarkkarai kathalar

Kalanthuravaduvar kalippuruvar."


-Pankiras 31-08-1979.


An off-hand translation as on 13th Dec, ' 05 would be....


Erayumanthurai, mother so sweet

Thou art youthful as the nature

Thou art the joy of the living

And the dead have lost thee.


Thamiraparani washes thy feet

Arabian Sea combs thy hair

The sea breeze embraces thee ever

That's thy beauty so enthralling.


Thy young and energetic fishermen

And thy fish-eyed and beautiful maidens

Make love one another and enjoy together

In thy sun baked shores so charming.



An attempt to know Erayumanthurai........


Erayumanthurai is the southern most and narrowest strip of land in an island like cluster of villages in between the Arabian Sea and the AVM -Anantha Victoria Marthandam-Canal on the west and east respectively. It is island like because the rivers Neyyar, Kerala, in the north and Thamiraparani, Tamil Nadu, in the south reach the sea after merging with the AVM Canal and make it literally an island for quite many days of the year. AVM canal merges with the Thamiraparani River at the beginning of our village.

It is hardly 200 meters wide and 500 meters long. Of these 500 meters, almost half was reclaimed from the river waters flooded over the bank in 1955 by the interest of Mr. P. S. Natarajapillai of Nagercoil, Revenue minister in the Pattom Thanupillai ministry in Kerala. Later in 1957 a retaining wall on the banks of the river to contain monsoon flooding was built by the special interest of Mrs. Lourdammal Simon, of our community, fisheries minister in the Kamaraj ministry of Tamil Nadu.

For so many years the sea eroded our shores and has swallowed more than half of it. Thank God, of late we are rather protected by a retaining wall along the coast. It is the smallest of all the villages in the island.

The only vegetation is the coconut trees and the nuts from the trees in our village is said to be of high quality.

A parish based census in 2001 gives the following details:


Population : 1892

Male : 990

Female: 902

Literacy: 90%

Families : c. 400

Gulf employed: 31%

Houses : 345

Electrified: 70%


Our main occupation is naturally fishing and that too traditional shore sea fishing. Few go for other kinds of fishing with smaller nets of various kinds and hook and line. Very few go fishing in the river. A considerable number of our womenfolk support their families by vending fish in the markets far and near. A good number of youngsters have gone to the Gulf countries and that is our main source of revenue.

At the northern end a small community of Hindu brothers is living. They engage in coir making mainly, but also go fishing on Sundays when our people don't venture the seas for religious reasons. In all probability, our forefathers might have been converted to Christianity from this community by Francis Xavier. Whatever it be, there remains a very cordial relation between us.

As any one would like to know of his ancestry, so also I always wanted to know of the origins and history of our village. This is rather impossible as there is no such thing as stories other than a usual story in almost all the coastal villages of how each village got its patron saint or so. And it is mostly of its Christian origins which is some 450 years old only. Our history before Christianity is practically in the oblivion.

Christian Origins:

Though people in the south claim 2000 years of Christianity with the 'arrival' of Thomas, an apostle of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus was kept under the bushel by the ones who seemed to have received it first. Hence, we had to wait for nearly 15 centuries for the Portuguese, especially Francis Xavier to come and preach the gospel. From that time onwards we are Catholics.

Its Christian history is traced way back in 1643 in the celebrations of its patroness Saint Lucy' s feast, whereas Francis Xavier is said to have come and baptized some 10000 fishermen in 1544 in the region between Poovar and Pallom.
In 1600 this area was brought under the ' Padroado' , a right of spiritual jurisdiction granted to the Portuguese by the Pope. The villages from Pallithura [where the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre of the ISRO is established] to Erayumanthurai were brought under the diocese of Cochin.

These areas in the Trivandrum and Kanyakumari districts remained with the diocese of Cochin as the "Trivandrum Portuguese Mission" even when the diocese of Trivandrum was erected in 1937.

In 1952 when the Diocese of Alleppey was erected by the bifurcation of the Padroado diocese of Cochin, the above Trivandrum Portuguese Mission was temporarily annexed to the Latin diocese of Trivandrum with Bishop Vincent V. Derere, OCD, as its administrator. On May 20, 1955 this territory was definitely integrated into the Latin diocese of Trivandrum. This has coincided with the appointment of Bishop Peter Bernard Pereira as the auxiliary bishop of Trivandrum. Since then we are in the diocese, now archdiocese of Trivandrum, though we are in Tamil Nadu.

Church Renewal and Reconstruction:

In the early sixties our church was extended converting an old shrine to accommodate the increasing population. In the eighties the roof of the old portion of the church was dismantled and repaired. Again in 1990 the entire church was pulled down along with the parochial house and the major portion of the cemetery to build an entirely new and modern church. The new church was completed with the generous monetary and labor contribution of practically every one in the village and was consecrated in December 1992. In 1993 a new parochial house and a separate bell fry were built. In 1998 a new cemetery was blessed on the northern border of our village. In 2001 the extension of the old church was converted into a multi purpose hall. Later it was also pulled down to make a full fledged community hall.