Documentary on Kanthalloor Shala

Thiruvananthapuram: Students of a primary school in the district have come up with a documentary on Kanthalloor Shala, the ancient university in the state.

The Government LP School, Kanjirampara, though an uneconomic one, have been taking up such extracurricular activities for many years.

Kishore Kallara, a teacher of the school who has many telefilms to his credit, is its director.

He said the school conducted sessions for students to discuss new information they come across while reading books and newspapers. 

“One of them asked about Kanthalloor Shala. None of them could answer. The idea of doing the documentary came from this," he told DC.

“This is the sad part of the story. Even students, who knew about Nalanda and Takshashila did not know that 1,000 years ago, a similar university existed right here in the city."

Recently, Kerala archaeology department had stepped in to restore the cultural heritage of the Kanthallur-Valiyasala area with archaeology and archives minister Kadannappally Ramachandran inaugurating the Paithrakagramam scheme to reclaim and protect the culture of Kanthalloor-Valiyasala under the initiative of the Janamaithri scheme of the police. 

The Thampanoor Janamaithri Police will team up with residents’ associations and cultural activists to reclaim and conserve the Kanthallur Shala.

The shala was a Vedic school residential in nature, with students living in proximity to the teacher. Classrooms had large stone pillars and slabs. The university taught many subjects such as Vedas, Mantras, Astrology, Science, Medicine and even arts such as music, drama and dance.

The location has also been a matter of hot debate. Some scholars claim it was Valiya Chola Sala Purayidam at Vizhinjam. Some others locate it in Neyyattinkara. 

However, most of the evidence was in favour of Valiyasala as ninth century Anandapura Varnanam also explicitly refers to it.

As per historical evidence, there were four halls - Palaya Sala, Arya Sala, Valiya Sala and Chinna Sala. Of them, three remain even today as names of places here.

Earlier when the proposed monorail rail project was first mooted, the original alignment was passing right through the ancient heritage site of Valiyasala. 

However, following the protest from the residents and associations, DMRC came up with a new alignment avoiding the Valiyasala area to preserve the age-old Kanthalloor Shala site.