04 February, 2009

Saga of ‘Kayal Rajah Muriken’

Mrs. & Mr. Joseph Muriken
Audience with His Holiness Pope John XXIII at the Vatican
(personal audiences with the Pope for laypeople are extremely rare)
The church the 'Kayal Rajah' Muriken built on a large bund in the midst of his three kayals

The person standing between Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi with some sort of a badge pinned to his shirt/jubba pocket is the ‘Kayal Rajah’. The person seated along with Nehru and Mrs. Gandhi is Pattom Thanu Pillay the then CM of Kerala.



Text of the condolence message by
His Highness Sree ChitiraTirunal Balaramavarma
The Maharaja of Travancore
on the passing away of Muricken


The perpetrators repenting albiet 38 years late

News report of Muriken's Grandson Adv. Mohan's tragic end on 26th January
at Mandya near Mysore

Visit http://prometheanally.blogspot.com/2008/07/economies-of-scale-and-property-rights.html and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P9YdLOwBEU for an excellent article by Rosemary Abraham with an animated vedio of the Kayal Rajah's farming technique.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I Have quite often come across the word Kayal Raja used as a title of Muaricken. I belong to Kuttanadu and what I know for sure is kayal Raja is the term used to refer to all those prominent Kayal cultivators in kuttanad.
Muricken was titled Krishi raja not kayal raja.

Nebu said...

I have to agree with you Anonymous. I remember once my G.father referring to Muricken as 'Krishi Raja'. But somehow I feel the title Kayal Raja is more suited as Krishi was done by all the people in Kuttanad but Muricken Outhachen's name was synonymous with Kayal cultivation.