Kottayam is one of 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala. Kottayam district comprises six municipal towns: Kottayam, Changanassery, Pala, Erattupetta, Ettumanoor, and Vaikom. It is the only district in Kerala that does not border either the Arabian Sea or another Indian state.
Changanassery, formerly Changanacherry, is a municipality in the Kottayam district of Kerala, India. It is located 17 km (10.6 mi) south of the district headquarters in Kottayam and about 115 km (71.5 mi) north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. As per the 2011 Indian census, Changanassery has a population of 47,485 people, and a population density of 3,517/km2 (9,110/sq mi).
John Berchmans, SJ was a Belgian Jesuit scholastic and is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church.
The CMS College, established in 1817, is the earliest Western-style college in India. The college is considered to be the oldest institution of higher education in India. This college is located at Kottayam, in the Kottayam district of Kerala. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in arts, commerce, and sciences. It also offers different vocational degree courses. It is affiliated to the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. It has been given Autonomous status by the University Grants Commission, India. CMS College, Kottayam and Presidency College Calcutta, established in the same year, are the two earliest western-style colleges of India. The college is ranked 92nd among colleges in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024.
St. Berchmans College, most commonly known as SB College, is one of the first autonomous colleges, situated in Changanasserry, 17 km from Kottayam, in Kerala, India. Established in 1922, the college is considered to be one of the oldest and premier institutions of higher education in India. The University Grants Commission (UGC) identified the college under its “College with Potential for Excellence” scheme. UGC and the Government of Kerala granted autonomy to the college on 13 June 2014. The college celebrated its centenary in the academic year of 2022.
Kannur University is a multi-campus public university established in 1996 to provide development of higher education in Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad districts of Kerala, India. It serves the region of North Malabar. It was established after the passing of Act No. 22 of 1996 of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. A university by the name of "Malabar University" had come into existence even earlier by the passing of an ordinance by the Governor of Kerala, on 9 November 1995.
Menacherry Poulose Paul (1904–1952) was an academic, educationist, scholar and literary critic of Malayalam. Considered by many as one of the major literary critics of Malayalam literature, Paul inaugurated comparative literature in Malayalam through his works, Novel Sahithyam and Cherukatha Prasthanam. He was the founder of parallel college education system in Kerala, one of the major forces behind the Purogamana Sahitya Prasthanam and was the founder president of Sahithya Pravrthaka Sahakarana Sangham, the writers' cooperative movement.
Kottayam is a city in the Kottayam district of Kerala, India. It is the district headquarters of the district and is located about 151 km (93.8 mi) north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. As per the 2011 Indian census, Kottayam has a population of 489,615 people, and a population density of 4,533/km2 (11,740/sq mi). The total Kottayam Metropolitan area has a population of 802,419 people, and a population density of 3,647/km2 (9,450/sq mi).
The Maharaja's College is a government college located in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. Established in 1875, it is one of the oldest colleges in India. Located in the heart of the city, the college campus is spread over 100,000 square metres on the banks of Vembanad Lake. The infrastructure of Campus is a mix of old and modern architecture.
Venerable Thomas of Kurialacherry was a Catholic bishop from Kerala. Kurialacherry was a member of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, had his ordination in May 1899 from Cardinal Cassantha, and was bishop of what would become the Archdiocese of Changanacherry.He is also known for establishing the prestigious SB College Changanasserry, one of the oldest Institutions of Higher Education in Kerala, in 1922.
James Kalacherry was an Indian educationalist and bishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, taking charge of the Diocese of Changanassery.
The importance and antiquity of education in Kerala are underscored by the state's ranking as among the most literate in the country. The educational transformation of Kerala was triggered by the efforts of both Church Mission Society missionaries like Jon Munro and clergy of Catholic church like Fr Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Fr Charles Lavigne and were the pioneers that promoted mass education in Kerala, in the early decades of the 19th century. The local dynastic precursors of modern-day Kerala, primarily the Travancore Royal Family, the Nair Service Society, Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, and Muslim Educational Society (MES), also made significant contributions to the progress on education in Kerala. Local schools were known by the general term kalaris, some of which taught martial arts, but other village schools run by Ezhuthachans were for imparting general education. Christian missionaries and British rule brought the modern school education system to Kerala. Ezhuthu palli was the name used in earlier times. The word was derived from the schools run by the Buddhist monasteries. For centuries, villages used to set up an ezhuthupally or ashan pallikoodam with one or two teachers. Students used to go this school from nearby areas and learn languages, literature, mathematics, grammar etc. After completing this, students may continue study about specific subjects such as ayurveda, astrology, accounting etc. Censuses during the 1800s showed that Travancore, Cochin, and Kannur areas have many such schools.
St. Joseph's College(Autonomous), Devagiri, also known as Devagiri College, is a college in Kozhikode, Kerala, India, offering graduation and postgraduation courses in arts and science. Students and alumni are called ‘Devagirians’. The college is in the Devagiri hills about 8 km east of Kozhikode city. It is run by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), an indigenous religious congregation founded in 1831. The college is ranked 60, in All India Ranking by National Institutional Ranking Framework during 2020.
Muttathu Varkey was an Indian novelist, short story writer, and poet of Malayalam. He was best known for a genre of sentiment-filled romantic fiction known as painkili (janapriya) novel in Malayalam literature, named after his famous novel Paadatha Painkili.
Sacred Heart College (Autonomous), Kochi is a premier, first grade Arts, Science, and Commerce College affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. It was established in 1944.
Masters is a 2012 Malayalam-language action crime film directed by Johny Antony and written by Jinu. V. Abraham. It stars Prithviraj Sukumaran and M. Sasikumar in the lead roles while an ensemble cast including Mukesh, Siddique, Vijayaraghavan, Biju Menon, Salim Kumar, Shammi Thilakan, Jagathy Sreekumar, Sandhya, Mithra Kurian, Ananya, Piaa Bajpai, Irshad and Sai Kumar. This film is loosely based on the English film Strangers on a Train.
Kottayam district is a centre of education in Kerala state. The Orthodox Theological Seminary at Chungam was the first institution to teach English in South India. It was founded in 1815 by Colonel John Monroe. The C.M.S High School was founded by the British missionary, Benjamin Bailey. The first college in Kerala state and the second established under British rule in India was the C.M.S. College (1840). Mahatma Gandhi University is located in Kottayam district. Later, the clergies of Catholic Church, after seeing a need for an English High School for students of Central Travancore, established a residential high school St Berchmans English High School in 1891 in Changanasserry under leadership of Fr Charles Lavigne, then vicariate apostolate of Kottayam. Even though it was started as a school for seminarians, it was made to public soon itself. In 1922, Venerable Mar Thomas Kurialacherry founded the famous SB College Changanassery for both intermediate students and scholars in Central Travancore. Today, both CMS College and SB College are recognised, for their legacy, as reputed and noted institutions of Kerala.
St. Berchmans Higher Secondary School is an aided Catholic Residential School in Changanasserry of Kottayam district. Established by Mar Charles Lavigne SJ, the then Vicar Apostolic of Kottayam, in 1891, is one of the oldest Catholic schools in Kerala. The school is run by Syro Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Changanasserry.
