Odathil Palli

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Odathil Palli (Odathil Mosque) is a 200-year-old mosque in Thalassery, a city in the state of Kerala, South India. The mosque was built around 1806.

Thalassery Municipality in Kerala, India

Thalassery, formerly Tellicherry, is a commercial city on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karnataka). Thalassery municipality has a population just under 100,000. Thalassery has an area of 23.98 square kilometres (9.26 sq mi). It is 22 km south of the district headquarters in Kannur town. Thalassery is situated in an altitude ranging from 2.5m to 30m above mean sea-level.

Kerala State in southern India

Kerala is a state on the southwestern, Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions. Spread over 38,863 km2 (15,005 sq mi), Kerala is the twenty-second largest Indian state by area. It is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and south, and the Lakshadweep Sea to the west. With 33,387,677 inhabitants as per the 2011 Census, Kerala is the thirteenth-largest Indian state by population. It is divided into 14 districts with the capital being Thiruvananthapuram. Malayalam is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state.

South India Group of Southern Indian states

South India is the area including the five Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, as well as the three union territories of Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry, occupying 19% of India's area. Covering the southern part of the peninsular Deccan Plateau, South India is bounded by the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Arabian Sea in the west and the Indian Ocean in the south. The geography of the region is diverse with two mountain ranges–the Western and Eastern Ghats, bordering the plateau heartland. Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Tungabhadra and Vaigai rivers are important non-perennial sources of water. Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam, Madurai and Kochi are the largest urban areas.

Contents

History

In the heart of Thalassery stands the 200-year-old Odathil Palli and the Garden Mosque. The site of the Odathil Palli used to be a sugarcane garden of the Dutch. It changed hands to the British-owned East India Company.

Moosakaka, a Muslim Keralite, was the contractor of the East India Company. Moosakaka hailed from the Keyi family of Thalassery. The Keyis were among the prominent traders of the time.

Chovvakkaran Moosa was a wealthy Indian pepper merchant and ‘Moghul Baig’ of southern India, who died in Thalassery in 1807. He is also known, more parochially, as 'Moosakakka Keyi'.

Keyi, are one of the several denominations among Muslims of Kerala, India. The Keyis are known for their immense wealth and land properties acquired through trade with the English East India Company. The Keyi family has its roots in Thalassery, Kannur district. Keyis only marry from another Keyi family and are noted for their matrilinear system of inheritance.

Moosakaka was considered to be very honest and trustworthy. Hence, the company wanted to reward him for his loyalty. As per his request, he was given the Dutch sugar garden. Musakaka bought this land for a small price, as he did not want it free.

Etymology

He constructed a beautiful mosque in Thalassery in the 'Karimbin-odam' (sugarcane plantation) formerly belonged to the Dutch, occupied by the British. Odam means 'garden' in Malayalam. Since it was constructed in Odam the mosque came to be called Odathil Palli, meaning 'mosque in Odam'. The mosque had copper plate roofing and golden dome in the minor and share the scenic features as the ones noted in the Brahmonical tradition. There was opposition in laying the dome — a privilege enjoyed by the temples — so Zamorin gave speed permission to lay the domes and the minaret. It highlights the communal harmony that prevailed in those days and the policy of enlightened toleration followed by the Kerala rulers. All Muslims can offer prayers. In the Kabaristan (graveyard adjacent to the mosque) only the dead bodies of those related to Keyis are buried.

Sugarcane group of cultivated plants

Sugarcane, or sugar cane, are several species of tall perennial true grasses of the genus Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae, native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South, Southeast Asia, and New Guinea, and used for sugar production. It has stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. The plant is two to six metres tall. All sugar cane species can interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an economically important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum, and many forage crops.

Brahmin is a varna (class) in Hinduism specialising as priests, teachers (acharya) and protectors of sacred learning across generations.

Minaret distinctive architectural feature of mosques

Minaret, from Arabic: منارة‎ manarah, also known as Goldaste, is a type of tower typically found built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets serve multiple purposes. While they provide a visual focal point, they are generally used for the Muslim call to prayer (Adhan). The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, a cap and head. They are generally a tall spire with a conical or onion-shaped crown. They can either be free-standing or taller than the associated support structure. The architecture, function, and role of the minaret vary by region and time period.

Highlights

Odathil Palli is a destination that tourists and travelers come to see. The highlights of Odathil Palli are that it has the typical Kerala architecture, and it is in the heart of Tellicherry. The crown on the roof is made of gold. The mosque is still in use for worship today. The masjid has mainly three entrance. First one is through main gate near Thalassery old Bus-stand. Next one is through Logans Road, and third is the entrance through backyard of the building which connected to OV Road.

See also

Overburys Folly

Overbury's Folly is a seaside park with a watch tower. It is located less than a kilometer from Thalassery, a commercial town on the Malabar Coast in the Kannur district, Kerala, India. It is named after its builder, E.N. Overbury, who served as a local judge at Thalassery in the 1870s.

Thalassery Pier

Thalassery Pier locally known as Kadalpalam is located in Thalassery, Kannur District of Kerala state, south India.

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