Chellanam

Chellanam is a village in the Kochi sub-district of Ernakulam District in the South Indian state of Kerala. Chellanam means "Place where no one goes" (In Malayalam - Chella Vanam).HistoryChellanam formed the southern border of the pre-colonial Kingdom of Cochin. The people lived in Chellanam were known as 'Thanda pulayar' or 'Kuzhi pulayar'. They were lived in the caves of big trees.In 1510 A.D, Goa was captured by the Portuguese general Alfonso Albuquerque from the Adil Shah dynasty of Bijapur, and Portuguese rule was established. In 1545 St. Francis Xavier, sent a letter to John III of Portugal, requesting an Inquisition to be installed in Goa. The inquisitor's first act was to forbid any open practice of the Hindu faith on pain of death. The Portuguese colonial administration enacted anti-Hindu laws to encourage conversions to Christianity. Prohibition was laid upon Hindu rituals as well. In all, over 42 Hindu practices were prohibited. All the people above 15 years of age were compelled to listen to Christian preaching or otherwise be punished. Several Hindu temples were destroyed as well. An order was issued for suppressing the Konkani language and making it compulsory to speak the Portuguese language. The law provided for dealing toughly with anyone using the local language. Following that law all the non-Christian cultural symbols and the books written in local languages were sought out to be destroyed. In the first hundred years, the Inquisition burned 57 alive at the stake and 64 in effigy. Others were sentenced to various punishments, totalling 4,046. The Kudumbi were forced to migrate from Goa following religious persecution by the Portuguese during the said infamous Goa Inquisition. The Kudumbis, along with Gouda Saraswat Brahmins (Malayalam: ഗൌഡ് സാരസ്വത്), Daivajnas and Vaishya Vanis who wanted to preserve their religious and cultural identity, migrated from Goa along the west coast of India, primarily through sea voyages.