Sreekandapuram is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

Kannur Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a city and a municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the major port city and commercial hu ...

district, in the Indian

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

Location

The town is located on the bank of the Valapattanam river which flows into Arabian sea. It is situated northeast of

, east of

Taliparamba Taliparamba (also known as Perinchelloor and Lakshmipuram) is a Municipality in Taliparamba taluk of Kannur district, Kerala, India. The municipal town spreads over an area of and is inhabited by 44,247 number of people. Etymology Th ...

and northwest of

Iritty Iritty is a Municipality and a Taluk of Kannur district in Kerala State, India. The town is the main market place for the farmer communities in the surrounding regions. Iritty is known as The Coorg Valley in God's Own Country. Iritty is one of ...

History

Sreekandapuram Town, Near Taliparamba City

Sreekandapuram was historically ruled by the

Mushika Kingdom Mushika dynasty, also spelled Mushaka, was a minor dynastic power that held sway over the region in and around Mount Ezhi (Ezhimala) in present-day North Malabar, Kerala, India. The country of the Mushikas, ruled by an ancient lineage of the Heh ...

. During the 9th century, Ad malik ibndinar founded Mosques at Kodungallur and Madayi and came to Pazhayangadi(Sreekandapuram) travelling by the river and founded 3rd Mosque here. Since the middle of 20th century, people from

Northern Travancore The Northern Division or Kottayam Division was one of the three (or four) administrative subdivisions of the princely state of Travancore in British India. It was established in 1856 and covered parts of Kottayam, Ernakulam and Idukki in t ...

migrated here at places like

Chempanthotty Sreekandapuram is a municipality in Kannur district, in the Indian state of Kerala. Location The town is located on the bank of the Valapattanam river which flows into Arabian sea. It is situated northeast of Kannur, east of Taliparamba and ...

, Madambam, Chundaparamba, Alex Nagar, Kotturvayal,

Karayathumchal Karayathumchal is a small village in the Sreekandapuram area of Kannur district, Kerala state, India. Location Karayathumchal is located about east of Thaliparamba town. It is under the Irikkur Assembly Constituency. History Migration of ...

etc. They were of different religions but most of them were Christians; churches, roads and schools were established here. Since then paddy fields and other related cultivation were present. But after the migration the face of Sreekandapuram has changed a lot. Different types of cultivation like rubber, coconut, areca nut, pepper, cashew nut, tapioca and can be seen in the hilly places and as a result small towns or markets were formed. The travels of

Abraham Ben Yiju Abraham Ben Yijū was a Jewish merchant and poet born in Ifriqiya, in what is now Tunisia, around 1100. He is known from surviving correspondence between him and others in the Cairo Geniza fragments.Amitav Ghosh, 'The Slave of MS. H.6', ''Subaltern ...

, a Jewish merchant who lived in Mangalore in the 1130s and 1140s, included a visit to Sreekandapuram, which he knew as ''Jurbattan''.

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''

, ''In an Antique Land'' (Gurgaon: Penguin Random House India, 2009) [first publ. Ravi Dayal 1992); , pp. 233-35.

Administration

As per Madras Village Panchayat Act passed in 1955, there were 3 villages in former Sreekandapuram Grama Panchayat like Sreekandapuram, Nediyenga and Kanhilery. Shree Abdul Rahiman sahib , Shree M C Ramankutty Nambiar, Shree Kunhabiduka were the presidents of the respective village panchayats. In 1960, Kerala Panchayat Raj Act came into existence. As per the act, this village panchayat formed into Sreekandapuram Grama Panchayat. There were 2 revenue villages in this Panchayat. In 1962, first panchayat election was conducted and Shree N C Varghese was elected as first panchayat president. Sreekandapuram established as a Municipality on 1 November 2015 which consist of 30 wards. The municipal office is situated in the town, on the banks of Valapattanam River. The current Municipal chairperson is Dr.K.V. Filomina (United Democratic Front (Kerala), UDF). Sreekandapuram Municipality is politically a part of Irikkur Assembly constituency in Kannur Loksabha constituency.

Municipality Wards

Sreekandapuram Municipality is composed of the following 30 wards:

Geography

Since Sreekandapuram town is a

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

, the low lying areas in the municipality are often prone to flood during south west monsoon. Sreekandapuram area was severely affected by

2019 Kerala floods On 8 August 2019, due to heavy rainfall in the monsoon season, severe flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be appli ...

and

2020 Kerala floods During the heavy rainfall over the monsoon period from 1 June to 18 August 2020, all 14 districts in Kerala were affected with 104 dead and 40 injured. Five districts in Kerala were flooded on 7 August 2020 (Idukki, Wayanad, Malappuram, Th ...

. Due to a land slide from Coorg hills, Kottur river overflowed and submerged Sreekandapuram town and the areas adjacent to it like Podikkalam, Kottur, Therlayi, Thumbeni, Madambam and Chengalayi. The devastation affected severe loss to merchants and their business activities in the town.

Kerala Kalagramam

Kerala Lalitakala Academy has constructed an artist village (Kalagramam) at Kakkananpara near Sreekandapuram that facilitates artists to engage in creative works by staying here. The Kalagramam is named after Padma Vibhushan-winning artist

K.G. Subramanyan Kalpathi Ganpathi "K.G." Subramanyan (1924 29 June 2016) was an Indian artist. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2012. Life Subramanyan was born in Tamil Brahmin family on 1924 in Kuthuparamba in Kerala, India, and initially studied eco ...

. The facilities include art galleries, studios, auditorium and guest houses in the first phase.

Demographics

As of 2011 Census, Sreekandapuram Panchayat had total population of 33,489 with 16,186 males and 17,303 females. The sex ratio was 1069 women per 1000 men. Total number of households were 7,960 in the panchayat limits. In Sreekandapuram, 10.7% of the population was under 6 years of age. Sreekandapuram panchayat had overall literacy of 94.2% where male literacy was 96.9% and female literacy was 91.7%. Sreekandapuram Panchayat has administration over Sreekandapuram and Nediyanga villages.

Religion

The town of Sreekandapuram has a mixed population of

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s and

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

. A popular Hindu temple in the municipality is the historic Ammakoottam Mahadevi temple. The temple was looted and destroyed by

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He i ...

, and nothing remained of it but earth and stones covered by bushes up until the 1970s. The land on which it stood was owned by the local Muslim community leader, and when people living around the temple claimed to have witnessed the

Devi Devī (; Sanskrit: देवी) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is ''deva''. ''Devi'' and ''deva'' mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism. The conce ...

's presence, it was handed over to local Hindu community leaders and a new temple was built. Another important temple is the Sree Mahavishnu Temple located at Kottoor, away from Sreekandapuram near Iritty-Taliparamba state highway. This temple is said to be over 600 years old and is also said to have been destroyed by Tipu Sulthan. It was later rebuilt. It is one among the rare Lord Vishnu temples which face the west direction with 'vatta sreekovil'.'Punarprathishta Mahotsava' is celebrated every year in the first week of March. Thrikkadamba Shree Mahavishnu temple was also destroyed by Tippu and it is under reconstruction now. It is away from Sreekandapuram town in Taliparamba-Iritty highway. LordShiva and Vishnu are equally worshiped here. Vayakkara ''KAVU''is another important place to visit in Sreekandapuram municipality. It is one of the important ecological places in the area. Vana Sasthav is the idol of the 'kavu' and people pay their offerings there in high devotion. The

Malik Dinar Malik Dinar ( ar-at, مالك دينار, Mālik b. Dīnār, Malayalam: മാലിക് ദീനാര്‍) (died 748 CE)Al-Hujwiri, "Kashf al-Mahjoob", 89 was a Muslim scholar and traveller. He was one of the first known Muslims to have co ...

mosque is situated at Pazhayangadi, from the town, and the Pazhayangadi Manna is away on the

Payyavoor Payyavoor is a village in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It's the headquarters of Payyavoor Grama Panchayat. Demographics As of 2011 Census, Payyavoor village had a population of 22,998 with 11,373 males and 11,625 females. ...

Road.

Educational Organizations

Marygiri Senior Secondary School, Sreekandapuram

* Madampam P.K.M College * S.E.S College, Sreekandapuram * Vimal Jyothi Engineering and MBA College, Chemperi * Devamatha Arts And Science College, Paisakary * Government Higher Secondary School Nedungome * Government Higher Secondary School Sreekandapuram * Marygiri Senior Secondary School, Podikalam; from Sreekandapuram town * Maryland High School, Madampam * Sal Sabeel Public School Sreekandapuram (CBSE); from Sreekandapuram town * Mapila A.L.P School, Sreekandapuram

Transportation

Kerala state highway (

SH 36 The following highways are numbered 36: International * European route E36 Australia * City Road, Sydney * Domain Highway, Tasmania * Arnhem Highway Canada *Alberta Highway 36 * Ontario Highway 36 * Saskatchewan Highway 36 China * G36 Exp ...

) passes through Sreekandapuram town which connects Taliparamba and Iritty. The road towards the east connects to

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude o ...

and

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

and other parts of Karnataka. National Highway (

NH 66 National Highway 66, commonly referred to as NH 66 (erstwhile NH-17 and a part of NH-47), is a mostly 4 lane long busy National Highway that runs roughly north–south along the western coast of India, parallel to the Western Ghats. It con ...

) passes through

town.

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka– ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

can be accessed on the northern side and

Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of ...

and

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

can be accessed on the southern side. The nearest railway station is away

Kannur railway station Kannur Railway Station, also formerly known as Cannanore, is the largest railway station serving the City of Kannur in Kerala. It lies in the Shoranur–Mangalore section of the Southern Railways of the Indian Railways. It is the largest rail ...

Palakkad Palakkad (), formerly known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated munici ...

line. The nearest airport is

Kannur International Airport Kannur International Airport is an airport serving the North Malabar region of Kerala, Kodagu and Mysore districts of Karnataka and Mahé district of Puducherry in India. It is located east of Kannur, and east of Thalassery, near the muni ...

of about South.

References

{{Municipalities of Kerala Cities and towns in Kannur district