Tirur

Tirur is one of the important business centers of Malappuram district. It is 41 Kms. south of Kozhikode, on the Mangalore-Madras railway line. Thunjan Paramba in Trikandiyur, 3 Kms. from Tirur railway station, is sacred for all who sepak Malayalam. This is the birth place of Thunjath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan of the 15 century AD, honoured as the father of Malayalam literature. Important works of Ezhuthachan, Adhyatma Ramayanam and Maha Bharatham are widely recited in kerala homes. A memorium for the great poet has been built at Thunjan Paramba, where weeklong literary mela is organized in last week of December. People in hundreds reach Thunjan paramba with their children, to initiate them into the world of letter on the vijayadasami day. Children are made to write on the white sands of Thunjan paramba with their fingers. Young poets of Kerala come on that day to offer their poem. A Nuxvomica tree, of which leaves are not bitter, is a surprise here. 12 Kms. south of Tirur is Chamravattom Sasta Temple, which is constructed on the Bharathapuzha. Six Kms. from Tirur, is Triprangode where the only temple of Kerala, consecrated to Garuda, the bird deity, is situated. Chandanakkavu, the birth place of the great Sanskrit poet and grammarian, Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri of 16th Century, is 10 Kms. away from Triur in Thiruvnnavaya Kottakkal road. A memoriam has been built there for the poet where small children are brought for their formal initiation into learning, on Vijayadasami day, as in Thunjan Paramba. Tirur-Koottayi road ends at Padinjharakkara, where the Bharathapuzha and Tirurpuzha converge to drain into the sea. This place is noted for migratory birds, gathering in thousands during February-April.

Tirur was a witness of the ill-famed Wagon tragedy of the 1921 rebellion. Seventy prisoners sent to Pothannur, filed up in an airtight goods wagon from Tirur railway station, died of asphyxiation. The wagons were returned with the dead bodies to Tirur. Tirur municipality has built a town hall on memory of the Wagon Tragedy.