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This is a true event that happened around 300 years ago. This event has become a legend on its own about the early days of The Alummoottil Channar family. This event took place in the 1700s. Even though the family's lineage is traced back to the early 1600s, the records before the 1700s are not documented. So the details about the first 4 generations of the family are not clear. The story ahead starts with the 5th generation of the family.
Before the following incident took place, the Alummoottil family house (Tharavad) was situated at Kulasekharapuram, a small hamlet about 3 km north of the Karunagappally town in the Kollam district of Kerala State.
This legendary event caused the Tharavad house to be relocated from there to the present location at Muttom, near Haripad in Alappuzha District, which is about 25 kilometers north of Kulasekharapuram.
Both Kulasekharapuram and Muttom were part of the Kingdom of Odanad also known as Kingdom of Kayamkulam. During the 1700s, the Alummoottil family was the supplier of cavalry regiments to the Odanad Maharaja. Alummoottil family members were known for their expertise in Kalaripayattu - a form of traditional martial art. The family used to administer numerous Kalaris (Kalaripayattu training centers), which supplied infantrymen and mounted soldiers to the kingdom.
So the story begins when a mother decided to send her two young sons to a related family to get trained in Kalaripayattu. She sent her sons to the Lekshana family at Mavelikkara, who were trainers of the army of the Maadathumkoor kingdom. The Maadathumkoor king was very close to the Travancore king, the archenemy of the Kayamkulam king. So the mother advised her sons to keep this affair a secret from Odanad king even though her intention was not to betray the king. But she only intended good for both her children and the Odanad kingdom.
So the brothers were getting trained by the Lekshana family. They were so good in Kalaripayattu that it made some of the students jealous. The jealous students informed the Odanad king about the brothers' secret training and they added fuel to the fire by accusing them as traitors.
As they realized that there is no way they can clear the misunderstanding of the king, they decided to end their own lives. They considered it to be brave to take each other's lives, instead of being called traitors and dying a humiliated death in the hands of an executioner. They performed one final stunt with their sword - the mutual killing of each other at the same instance which was almost impossible to perform without their brilliance in Kalaripayattu.
When their mother came to know about this, she was grief-stricken. She came crying before the Odanad king, and she revealed all about their intentions. When the king was finally able to hear the whole story, he became remorseful about his haste decision. So as a way of repentance, he compensated the grieving mother with a large area of land around the spot where her sons were slain.
The field where her sons were slain is called 'Vettukandam' till today, which translates to slash for 'vettu' and field for 'kandam' also meaning 'the field of sacrifice by the sword'. This field is situated near Muttom. Later the mother relocated to Muttom from Kulasekharapuram.
This is the legend behind the beginning of an era of the Alummoottil family at Muttom, in which reality is interlaced with myths.
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