Kollengode - Perumal Kovil - 100 Agraharams Project

Kollengode - Perumal Kovil - 100 Agraharams Project
There are two streets with temples and technically two agharams into one. The older temple is the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple and the later, Perumal temple.

The saddest part is the mention by Sri Thyagarajan about the loss of lands which yielded about 30000 para of Paddy. To put things in perspective you need to know more about the measures of rice. 

One Naazhi: The smallest measuring tool, is around 200 grams
One Idangazhi: 4 naazhis make up 1 idangazhi - 800 gramsOne Para: 10 idangazhis make up 1 para - 8 kilos
One Sack: 7 paras make up 1 sack - 56 kilos
One Cartload: 10 sacks make up 1 cartload, which could be pulled by a bullock cart - 560 kilos or about half a ton
If we consider 70% yield of Rice per kilo of Paddy then the temple used to get about 168,000 kilos of rice. The temples applied a part of the produce for daily puja and sold/bartered the rest to fund other running expenses, provide food to poor and needy.

The loss of the land after the Land reforms pushed the temples and destroyed the fabric of the agaraharams and its temples as evidenced from the talk.

I greatly echo the sentiments of Sri Anantanarayanan who observes that only the current generation is still holding on to the roots to their agraharams and make an annual pilgrimage (during the utsavams mostly) but their children rarely look into their roots and soon they may forget their past.

The purpose of the 100 Agraharams project is to turn the tide and make sure that the agraharams survive.
Kollengode is scenic and once I have completed documenting all the agraharams in Palakkad, I will bunch the agraharams into groups so that any devotee can do a circuit with minimum time.

Radhe Krishna

Sriram(Hari)
100-Agraharams Project
Rama Bhagavathar Charitable Trust
July 27, 2024