Perinthalmanna

Perinthalmanna is a major city and municipality in Malappuram district, Kerala, India. It serves as the headquarters of the Perinthalmanna Taluk, and a block and a Revenue Division by the same name. It was formerly the headquarters of Valluvanad Taluk, which was one of the two Taluks in the Malappuram Revenue Division of the erstwhile Malabar District during the British Raj. The town is located southwest to the city of Malappuram at the centre of the Kozhikode–Malappuram–Perinthalmanna–Palakkad National Highway 966. It is one of the major commercial centers in the Malappuram district but is not a part of the Malappuram metropolitan area. The town is home to several medical institutions and one of the three branches of Aligarh Muslim University in India, which is popularly known as AMU Malappuram Campus. Perinthalmanna and the neighbouring town of Angadipuram served as the capital of the Valluvanad Swaroopam dynasty. Valluvanad was ruled by a Samanthan Nair clan known as Vellodis, similar to the Eradis of neighbouring Eranad and the Nedungadis of Nedunganad. The rulers of Valluvanad were known by the title Valluvakonathiri or Vellattiri. According to local legends, the last Cheraman Perumal ruler gave a vast expanse of land in South Malabar to one of the Valluvakonathiri before going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Valluvanad was famous for the Mamankam festivals (held once every 12 years) and chronic wars against the Zamorin of Calicut. During the last decades of the eighteenth century, the region came under the control of the vast Kingdom of Mysore. The town served as the headquarters of the Valluvanad Taluk in the erstwhile Malabar District during the British Raj. Perinthalmanna, along with the towns of Malappuram, Manjeri, and Tirurangadi, was one of the main centres of the Malabar Rebellion of 1921. Now it is one of the important commercial centre in Malappuram district. Poonthanam Nambudiri, a prominent 16th century Malayalam poet and the author of Jnanappana, and E. M. S. Namboodiripad, the first Chief Minister of Kerala, were born in Perinthalmanna.