What’s in a name: Tale of Kochi’s ‘white mountain’

KOCHI:   There was a time when most of Kochi was farmlands, filled with paddy fields and brooks. Vennala, earlier known as Venmala, was once such a sparsely populated hinterland. ‘Venn’ means white and ‘mala´, mountain. There is a story about why the area came to be known as a ‘white mountain’.

Retired village officer Anirudhan Panicker, 89, knows the history of his land pretty well. Areas to the west of Kakkanad, including Vennala, used to be part of the sea centuries ago, he says. “The town got this name because earlier Vennala had fine pearly white sand piled up like a mountain,” says Anirudhan. 

“This mountain was covered by a white shrub, an ayurvedic plant called vellila thali (Mussaenda glabrata). From afar, the place looked like a white mountain. So it came to be known as Venmala, which later got altered to Vennala. Rock and sand from Vennala were used to build structures of Willingdon Island in Kochi.”  

About 300 years ago, Vennala was a paddy field and had a large granary. There were many small islands around the area. “The three main ones were Manja Thuruthu, also known as Ullakan Para, Ponnum Thuruthu and Nalli Thuruthu,” he says.

Vennala councillor Muraleedharan Menon B says the Government HSS here is a crucial milestone. “It was after this school was constructed that all other developments came to Vennala,” he says.  Changampuzha Samskarika Kendram president P Prakash says Vennala used to be a panchayat initially. 

“When Kochi Corporation was formed on November 1, 1967, Vennala became a part of it,” he adds. “The corporation was formed by merging three municipalities and four panchayats. Ernakulam, Mattancherry and Fort Kochi were the municipalities, and Edapally, Vennala, Vyttila and Palluruthy were the panchayats.”

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