Māmānkam or Māmāngam was a duodecennial medieval fair held on the bank, and on the dry river-bed, of Pērār (River Nil̥a, River Ponnani, or Bhārathappuzha) at Tirunāvāya, southern India. The temple associated with the festival was Nava Mukunda Temple in Tirunavaya. It seems to have begun as a temple festival, analogous to the Kumbha Melas at Ujjaini, Prayaga, Haridwar and Kumbakonam.William Logan, M. C. S., Malabar. Vol I. Government Press Madras 1951
Tirunāvāya, is known for its ancient Hindu temples. The festival was most flamboyantly celebrated under the auspices and at the expenses of the Hindu chiefs of Kōzhikōde (Calicut), the Samutiris (the Zamorins). The fair was not only a religious festival for the Samutiris, but also an occasion for the display of all their pomp and power as the most powerful chiefs of Kerala. During the Mamankam it was believed that the goddess Ganga descended into the Perar and by her miraculous advent made the river as holy as the Ganges itself.K. V. Krishna Ayyar, "The Kerala Mamankam" in Kerala Society Papers, Series 6, Trivandrum, 1928-32, pp. 324-30 Much like the famous Kumbha Mēḷas, the fair is held once in every 12 years and carried huge economic, social and political significance. Apart from the brisk trading, attested by travelers from Arabia, Greece and China, various forms of martial art and intellectual contests, cultural festivals, Hindu ritual ceremonies and folk art performances were held at Tirunāvāya. Hindu pilgrims from distant places, trading groups and travelers also leave colorful accounts of Māmānkam. Duarte Barbosa mentions "scaffoldings erected in the field with silken hangings spread over it". Kozhikode Granthavari, Mamakam Kilippattu and Kandaru Menon Patappattu, along with Keralolpatti and Keralamahatmya, are the major native chronicles mentioning the Mamankam festival.K.P. Padmanabha Menon, History of Kerala, Vol. II, Ernakulam, 1929, Vol. II, (1929)
The innate nature of the festival, dateable at least to the era before the Cheras of Cranganore (c. 800-1124 CE), muddled in myths and legends, is still disputed. As per some sources, the nature of the fair underwent tragic changes after the capture of Tirunāvāya by the chief of Kōzhikōde from the Veḷḷāṭṭiri chief. From that day forth, the Vaḷḷuvanāṭu chiefs started to send warriors to kill the Sāmūtiri (who was personally present at the fair with all his kith and kin) and regain the honor of conducting the festival. This led to a long drawn rivalry and bloodshed between these two clans.K. V. Krishna Iyer Zamorins of Calicut: From the Earliest Times to AD 1806. Calicut: Norman Printing Bureau, 1938
As per K. V. Krishna Iyer, the last Māmānkam fair was held in 1755 CE. The Māmānkam came to an end with the conquest of Kōzhikōde by the Sultān of Mysōre, Ḥaidar ʿAlī (1766 CE) and the subsequent Treaty of Seringapatam (1792) with the English East India Company.William Logan, M. C. S., Malabar. Vol I. Government Press Madras 1951. pp. 165 Canganpaḷḷi Kaḷari, Paḻukkāmandapam, Nilapāṭu Tara, Marunnara and Manikkiṇar at Tirunāvāya are protected (Protected Monuments) by the State Archaeology Department, Kēral̥a.
Etymology The word "Māmānkam" is sometimes considered as a Malayālam corruption of two Sanskrit words, one perhaps related to the Māgha month (January – February).Maha-Magha Encyclopaedia of Indian Culture, by Rajaram Narayan Saletore. Published by Sterling, 1981. . 9780391023321. Page 869. According to William Logan, "Maha Makham" means literally "Great Sacrifice".
Different renderings of the name is given below,
Maha-Magham - Great Magha (K. V. Krishna IyerK. V. Krishna Ayyar, Zamorins of Calicut, p. 92; Idem, ‘The Kerala Mamankam ’, in Kerala Society Papers, Vol. I, p. 325) Maha-Makham - Great Sacrifice (William LoganWilliam Logan, Malabar, Vol. I, p. 163, Notes, p. 164. and K. P. Padmanabha MenonK. P. Padmanabha Menon, History of Kerala, Vol. II, p. 404.) Maha-Maham - Great Festival Maha-Ankam - Great Fight Magha Makam - Elamkulam P. N. Kunjan PillaiElamkulam P. N. Kunjan Pillai, Samskarathinte Nailikakkallukal p. 128
Background Tirunavaya (Navayogipuram on Brhannadi in Kerala MahatmyaKerala MahatmyaPalakkad Sekharipuram Sesusastri, Thrissur, 1912) seems to be a very sacred place for the Hindus of Kerala from time immemorial. Perar at Tirunavaya is considered to assume a special sanctity, because it flows between the temple of god Vishnu (Nava Mukunda) on its right bank and temples of Brahma and Siva on its left. Tirunavaya, on the fertile Perar basin, must have been one of the earliest Brahmin settlement in Kerala. Perar also acts as the main artery of communication with the interior Kerala lands, otherwise inaccessible due to the thick vegetation, in the rainy season. Rivers and backwaters in Kerala afforded the easiest and cheapest and almost only means of communication in times when wheeled traffic and pack-bullock traffic were unknown. And accordingly it is found that the Brahmins settled most thickly close to or on the rivers and selected sites for their settlements so as to command as much as possible of these arteries of traffic.
Legendary origins The following is a description of the origins of the festival, prior to the hegemony of the chiefs of Valluvanatu over the Mamankam, based on native legends and mythsHermann Gundert, Ed., Keralotpatti, in Keralotpattiyum Mattum
The fair was initially conducted by the landlords, led by an executive officer styled the Rakshapurusha ("the Great Protector of the Four Kalakas"). Each Rakshapurusha was to continue in office only for three years. Once some dispute arose as to the selection of the next Great Protector, in the assembly at Tirunavaya, and principle four section (which then composed the assembly) having failed to agree as to the selection of their executive officer resolved at last to select one to rule over them, and for this purpose they traveled, and chose one prince from a kingdom on the east of the Western Ghats. The Brahmins brought a prince to Tirunavaya, placed him on a seat of honor on the banks of Perar, and proclaimed him "Perumal of Kerala". According to the original engagement with the prince, he was to continue as ruler only for a term of 12 years, at end of which he was to retire into private life or to leave the country altogether.
The coronation of this first king of Kerala took place on Pushya in the month of Magha in Karkitaka Vyazham, and this day in every cycle of Jupiter thus became important in the history of Kerala because the reign of each Perumal terminated on that day, he being elected for 12 years. This event was commemorated with a Great Feast, at which all Brahmin nobles and the chiefs of Kerala attended. On the 28th day the retiring Perumal appeared before the Brahmin assembly and the laid of the Sword of the Perumal, and the assembly declares the throne vacant. Another was then elected and crowned Perumal for another 12 years. This Great Feast and coronation occurring in Magha month, that month in every Karkitaka Vyazham was known was Maha Magha, or Mamankam in Tamil.
According to Francis Wrede, the Chera Perumals of Cranganore used to preside over the Mamankams.As quoted by Iyer (1938) from The Transactions of the Literary Society, Bombay pp 2-3 So it seems, at first conducted by the Brahmins, the fair came to be celebrated the aegis of the Chera rulers of Cranganore. Even in latter Samutiri times, the first invitation letter to participate in the Mamankam was addressed to the Pandyas, a reminiscence of the Chera days.
The Great Sacrifice Alexander Hamilton, in his A New Account of the East Indies, Vol. I, gives a different account of the initial nature of the festival. According to him, it was a custom for the king of Kerala to rule only for 12 years. The king was obliged to kill himself, by cutting his own throat on a public scaffold erected in view of the Brahmin assembly, after completing his 12-year term. The king's body was a little while after burned with great pomp and ceremony, and the Brahmins elected a new king for the next term. The Kerala Mahatmya corroborates this account, declaring that the king used to be deposed at the Mamankam, but there is no mention of a suicide. According to Duarte Barbosa the king goes to bathe at a temple tank with much fanfare. Thereafter, he prays before the idol and mounts to the scaffolding, and there, before all the people, he takes a very sharp knife, cuts off his throat himself and he performs this sacrifice to the idol. Whoever desires to reign for the next 12 years and undertake this martyrdom for the idol, has to be present looking on at this, and from that place the Brahmins proclaim him the new king.(Duarte Barbosa mentions this to be the kingdom of Quilacare and not Calicut of which he has given very detailed accounts of the life and customs of the people there including the Samutiri in the first chapter of vol 2)K. P. Padmanabha Menon, History of Kerala, Vol. II, Cochin, 1929, Vol. II, (1929) Sir James Frazer also supports this view in his extensive studies.James Frazer, The Golden Bough, (1890), Hertfordshire, Reprint 1995, pp. 275-77, 296-97
Land tenures
Jonathan Duncan, in his "Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society", mentions at each recurring Mamankam festival all feudal ties were broken, and the parties, assembled in public conclave at Tirunavaya, readjusted at such times all existing relations among themselves. At the end of the Feast all prior leases of land were considered to be at an end and fresh grants were to be obtained at the beginning of the next reign.William Logan, M. C. S., Malabar. Vol I. Government Press Madras 1951
By ancient customs, even in Travancore, all tenures were to continue for a maximum period of twelve years to be renewed thereafter. But it is known that this idealistic proposition did not work satisfactorily in Kerala.K. C. Alexander, Peasants Organisation in South India, New Delhi, 1981, p. 43.
Vellattiri as Rakshapurusha (Great Protector) The native traditions continue to describe the evolution of the festival in the following manner
When the influence of the Perumal increased in course of time, they refused to abdicate after 12 years, and the practice of fighting for the crown by warriors, at Tirunavaya, came in vogue. The Perumal of Cranganore attended the Great Feast as before, but, instead of abdicating the crown in the presence of Brahmins, he seated himself in a tent pitched for him at Tirunavaya, strongly guarded by a body of spearmen and lancers. The candidate of the kingship was to force his way through this warriors and to kill the Perumal. Theoretically, he who succeeded in thus killing the Perumal was immediately proclaimed and crowned Perumal for the next term of 12 years. If no one succeeded in killing the Perumal he was to reign for another 12 years. The last Perumal, now identified by historians as Cheraman Rama Varma Kulasekhara (ruled c. 1089-1124 CE), is said to have ruled for 36 years by surviving three Mamankams at Tirunavaya.
The last Chera Perumal Rama Kulasekhara conferred the chief of Valluvanatu the "right" to conduct the Mamankam fair as the Rakshapurusha - the Great Protector with 10,000 Nair warriors. The Perumal also assigned to him, the Tirumandhamkunnattu Bhagavati, sacred to the Brahmins of Chovvaram, as his guardian deity. It was also Tirunavaya that the Chera Perumal of Cranganore is supposed to have made his partition of Kerala.
Zamorin's capture of Mamankam