The Origin of Vellookunnel Family

Our family, Vellookunnel, is an ancient Nazrani Catholic family based around

Erattupettah. It is a historical fact that St.Thomas, came on his evangelical mission

to the famed Malabar port of Kodungalloor in AD 52 and initially converted seven

Brahmin families by the sheer force of his intellect and the logic of the new faith

he was propagating. One of these families had settled in the nearby area of Velloor.

According to the family history of this Velloor Brahmin family (which still exists,

although in much reduced circumstances), only one branch of the family went

the “Nazrani” way or chose the worship of God according to the tenets of the

new faith brought by St. Thomas. We are the direct descendants of these Velloor

Brahmins who elected to follow St Thomas and his new religion. Even after their

conversion to the new faith our ancestors retained the family name of Velloor.

These Velloor Brahmins were an offshoot of the noblest of the entire Brahmin caste

in Malabar. They belonged to the renowned Aazhuvaancherry Mana who held a

singular honorific as the “Aazhuvaancherry Thamprakal”. Later on, the Velloor

Brahmins have become Velloor Nazranis because of the conversion to Christianity.

After the conversion, the Velloor Nazranis, their followers & dependents also

sought a new refuge. They chose to go up the Muvattupuzha river and settled at

a slightly elevated region upstream. This place came to be called “Velloorkunnam”,

meaning the Hill of the Velloors. This place exists even today bearing the same

name and is adjacent to the Moovattupuzha town which developed centuries later.

Our ancestors from then onwards came to be called Velloorkunnens. But they did

not stay here very long, perhaps only a few decades. We have to assume that this

place was still close to the power centers of the Malabar Coast and the possibility

of hostilities and the threat of persecution were real dangers to the small & weak

Nazrani community. So they moved deeper into the impenetrable forests in the

east where no one would be foolhardy enough to pursue them. For their second

migration, the Velloor Nazranis chose the nearby Meenachil River. We can only

presume that they had heard of human habitation up this river. Whatever may

have been their reasons, they ended up at the confluence of the Meenachil River

and its principal tributary, the Poonjaar River. The place they came to settle in

was then called variously “Erappuzha” (two rivers) and “Aruvithura” (river port).

In the 6th century this place has become a small trading station for timber & hill

produce. Here the small Nazrani community, under the leadership of the Velloor

family established a colony. According to our family legends and church history,

this settlement built the First Church The ‘Martha Mariam’ Church in 8th century

at Aruvithura. (Ref PCP revised Fifth edition Pg 125) This church was renovated

in 1600’s to bear the name of St. George with the help of Portuguese traders by the

Parish priest Kallarackal Mathai Kathanar.

They also chose to retain the new name they had acquired at their previous

settlement the Velloorkunnens which in course of time got abbreviated to

“Vellookunnel” and we have proudly carried this family name ever since.

Accumulation of Land and Wealth

Over the centuries, the Nazranis became the best agriculturists in Malabar and

have retained these skills even to this day. The result of this closeness to land & its

husbandry was the affinity that the Nazranis developed for land. They constantly

strove to acquire land which became their only wealth. The local Naduvazhis were

happy to allocate far away forest lands to these hardy Nazranis as a safety barrier

described earlier. The Vellookunnens were also addicted to land and our forefathers

made great efforts to acquire more and more land. Our forefathers worked diligently

and had accumulated some 2500 to 3000 acres by the early 18th century.

It has to be appreciated that this was a slow, sustained effort by generations

after generations of Vellookunnens and certainly not a sudden windfall for the

family. Our ancestors worked hard for their wealth & prosperity and once they

became rich, they developed royal connections and utilized the opportunities that

presented themselves. Make no mistake; our forefathers were hard-working, thrifty

pioneers and every acre and every rupee they amassed was legitimately earned

through hard effort! By the beginning of the 19th century, the Vellookunnel family

was rich and held the largest tract of land in Meenachil Taluk.

It must be mentioned here that when the Vellookunnens first arrived at

Erappuzha/Aruvithura, they chose for themselves a large plot of land in a prime

location close to the river. This first property of the Vellookunnens was called

“Pulikeel Parambu”. In course of time we came to be known locally more as the