Palamaneri

Pazhamarneri (Palamaneri) is a small village situated on the South bank of the River Kaveri. It is located 30 km northwest of Thanjavur and 32 km northeast of Trichy. It is 2.5 km from Thirukattupalli.

History

Even though it is a small village, the name of this village along with surrounding villages is mentioned in historical books since the Chola Period.

Subsequent generations settled in adjoining villages along as well as across the Kaveri. These villages include Nemam, Kuthur, Pachambettai (near Lalgudi) and Onbathhuveli (near Thirukattupalli ).

Notable residents

Direct disciples of Thyagarja the saint Composer of Thiruvaiyaru hailed from Palamarneri. Sir P. S. Sivaswami Iyer, a great Philanthropist who established a high School in Tirukkattupalli and a Girls High School in Mylapore, Chennai belongs to this sect. PS Sundaram , educationist and recipient of award from the Government of Tamil Nadu for his translation of Tirukkural, Bharati's Poems etc. into English also hails from this sect. N Kesi a Flautist of repute was a youngest musician of her days to cut a gramophone record( when gramophones were hand wound for playing)

Shri Krishnan Raman Brahmarayar, Defense Minister of Rajaraja Chola was from this village. Even though he is Saivite by birth, he followed Vaishnavism through his lifetime. His son Arun Mozhi Bhattan served the ministry of Rajendra Chola I during the Chola Period. The descendants of their family were then called as Pazhamarneri Brahmarayas and commonly constitute the Palamaneri Brahatcharanam of the Iyer community. They live in huge houses with areas more than 5,000 sq ft (500 m²) in size. Their basic occupation is the supervision of agricultural lands. Until the 1970s most of them possessed a good area of land. However, due to change in the political scenario in Tamil Nadu they fled to major cities, but some continued residing here thriving on agriculture based business. The famous Tamil cinema story writer of this decade Mr. Sundharam ( known as Vietnam vidu sundharam ) is also from this village . As well Famous Tamil writer Balakumaran (Ezhuthu Chitthar), Erstwhile Election commissioner of India Ganesan, PR Subramaniam (Palamaneri Ramachandran) the first Public grievance Officer of CMDA (Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority) hail from this village.

Religion

The Grama Deivam (Village Deity who is believed to protect the residents of the village) is "Alankariamman". There is a temple with regular rituals even today for Alankariamman. As well there is a famous Siva temple in this village that attracts many visitors during festival days such as Arudhra Dharsanam, Sivarathri. There is also a VenugopalaSwami temple in the same village.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raja_Raja_Chola_I http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirukattupalli http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._S._Sivaswami_Iyer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahatcharanam