There’re no frogs in this pond – Thavalayillakkulam

Sometimes, it’s the stories behind certain places that leaves an indelible impression on your mind. I love to hear such stories.

And this is one such story…

Ponds with water lilies are not a rare phenomenon in Kerala. But I really do not know what made us stop our vehicle and ask about that particular pond at Parassala, the border of Kerala and Tamilnadu. We were on our way to Kanyakumari and the journey began from Thiruvananthapuram. 

Padmakumar Chettan, a local living in the area became curious when I started taking its pictures.

He came to me and said “ It’s called ‘ Thavalayilla Kulam’ ( Ponds sans frogs). There are no frogs in this pond. Would you believe it?”

” What a curious name,” I said.

” Yes, indeed,” and he voluntarily started narrating the story behind it.

“ The story is old as well as interesting too,” he said.

King Marthanda Varma was ruling the erstwhile Travancore state.

The Kingdom of Travancore was an Indian kingdom from 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram.

He used to visit a temple which was near to this pond. The frogs in the pond were so fond of him that they would cry whenever the King left the temple and the place.

“ Just imagine, thousands of frogs crying at the same time,” he said with a little smile on his face and continued the story.

After some time, their pleading became too unbearable that somebody cursed the frogs – ‘Let there be no frogs in this pond ‘.

“ That’s it, and thus frogs ceased to exist in this pond and hence the name,” he concluded his little story with a sad face.

Wow! What an imagination?

But he couldn’t answer my questions like who cursed the frogs? 

Was it King Marthandavarma or somebody else?

What was it called before?

Still, it’s a lovely little story, right..

I believe certain questions have to remain unanswered to make them more alluring. What do you think?

PS : Thiruvananthapuram is the Capital city of Kerala.  Parassala is a town of Thiruvananthapuram and is at the southern end of Kerala, bordering Tamil Nadu.