Aymanam is a village in the

Kottayam District Kottayam () is one of List of districts of Kerala, 14 districts in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kerala. Kottayam district comprises six municipal towns: Kottayam, Changanassery, Pala, Kerala, Pala, Erattupetta, Ettu ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, 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 ...

, India. It is about 4 km from the railway station in Kottayam along the road to

Parippu Dal is a term in the Indian subcontinent for dried, split pulses. Dal or DAL may also refer to: Places Cambodia *Dal, Ke Chong Finland * Laakso, a neighbourhood of Helsinki India * Dal Lake, in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India * Dal La ...

, and 85 km from the

Cochin International Airport Cochin International Airport , popularly known as Kochi International Airport or Nedumbassery Airport, is an international airport serving the city of Kochi, Kerala, in southwestern India. It is located at Nedumbassery, about northeast of th ...

. Aymanam is the setting for

Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (; born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. ...

's 1997 novel ''

The God of Small Things ''The God of Small Things'' is a domestic fiction written by the Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about childhood experiences of the fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" prevalent in the 1960s in Kerala, Ind ...

''.

Demographics

India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Aimanam had a population of 34,985 with 17,268 males and 17,717 females.

Etymology

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

, ''Ay'' means "five" and ''Vanam'' means "forest". Hence, ''Aymanam'' means "five forests", which, according to tradition, were Vattakkadu, Thuruthikkadu, Vallyakadu, Moolakkadu and Mekkadu. They survive today only as "snake groves", where fertility idols, in the form of snakes, were worshiped under the trees. Families depute Brahmin once a year for ritualistic offering.

Geography

Lake Vembanad lies to the west of the village, near

Kumarakom Kumarakom is a tourism destination near the city of Kottayam in Kerala, India. It is near the Vembanad Lake, the largest lake in the state of Kerala. In January 2023 ''The New York Times'' mentioned Kumarakom's backwater tourism. Climate Kum ...

, with the Meenachil River providing its water supply, which often floods from June to August due to regular

monsoons A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

. Consequently, two-thirds of the village are paddy fields. The borders of the village are mostly delineated by rivers or canals, and include the villages of Arpookara, Kumara Nallooru, Thiruvarpu and Kumarakom, and the municipality of Kottayam.

In popular culture

Aymanam (also spelled in her novel "Ayemenem") is the setting for the 1997 novel, ''

'' by

, the village where she grew up. In the village, two houses—Puliyampallil House and Shanti House was used "to construct her 'Ayemenem House'". The former house was described in the novel as "with its steep gabled roof pulled over its ears like a low hat". The house belongs to one of Roy's aunts. The latter house has European interior designed by the ex-wife of Roy's uncle, both of them are modelled as "Chacko" and "Margaret" in the novel.

Notable residents

- writer * Aymanam John - writer * N.N. Pillai - Drama and cinema artist. *

Vijayaraghavan (actor) Narayanapillai Vijayaraghavan, known mononymously as Vijayaraghavan, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. He is known for his character roles. He is the son of drama and cinema artist N. N. Pillai. Early life and ...

movie actor. *

Mary Poonen Lukose Mary Poonen Lukose (2 August 1886 - 2 October 1976) was an Indian gynecologist, obstetrician and the first female Surgeon General in India. She was the founder of a ''Tuberculosis Sanatorium'' in Nagarcoil and the ''X-Ray and Radium Institute' ...

- Surgeon General of India and state legislator of

Travancore The kingdom of Travancore (), also known as the kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor () or later as Travancore State, was a kingdom that lasted from until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvanan ...

. *

Guinness Pakru Ajay Kumar (born 31 August 1976), better known as Guinness Pakru, is an Indian actor and television personality, who primarily works in Malayalam cinema, and some Tamil films. He has also served as a judge on several Malayalam television comedy ...

- Malayalam Movie Actor *

Mary Roy Mary Roy (1933 – 1 September 2022) was an Indian educator and women's rights activist known for winning a Supreme Court lawsuit in 1986 against the inheritance law prevalent within the Syrian Malabar Nasrani community of Kerala. The judgemen ...

- Indian educator and women's rights activist

References

{{Kottayam district Villages in Kottayam district