page_title: Arakuzha
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Arakuzha / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Mar Varghese Payyappilly Palakkappilly (8 August 1876 - 5 October 1929). Photo manually retouched with a pencil.
context_page_description: Arakuzha is a beautiful small village situated 6KM from Muvattupuzha in Kerala, India. The SH 41 connects Arakuzha with Muvattupuzha and Koothattukulam and Moozhi bridge connects Arakuzha to pineapple city of India, Vazhakulam town which is also 6 km from Arakuzha. It is located on SH 41 towards Koothattukulam, the alternate route for Main Central Road. St. Mary's High School and St. Joseph’s girls' school are the oldest high school in Arakuzha, where many prominent people in the society have been educated. Arakuzha is also famous for the two Christian pilgrim centre-St. Mary’s Forane Church and Malekurish Church. Malekurish is one of the famous Christian holy place and tourist destination in the name of st Thomas, cheif festival is on the first Sunday after Easter. The village is also rich with tradition and culture.
context_section_description: The village has a large population of Syrian Catholic Christians. Marth Mariam Syro-Malabar Catholic Forane Church has an important role in the life of the people. Saint Thomas Christians of Arakuzha have more than 1500 years of recorded history. This region comprising Kothamangalam, Vazhakulam, Arakuzha, Mylakompu, Nagapuzha, Muthalakodam of erstwhile Travancore kingdom has some very old Syrian churches. Arakuzha, being an ancient Syrian Christian centre has given asylum to many migrant Syrian Christians during the Tipu's persecution of Nasranis. Venerable Mar Varghese Payyappilly Palakkappilly had served as the parish priest of Marth Mariam Church in Arakuzha (1920-22). During his tenure in Arakuzha he started St. Mary's School there. He also purchased 12 acres (49,000 m²) of land in M.C.Road for constructing the famous St. Joseph's Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Meenkunnam.  
  Several families migrated to different parts of Kerala, mainly to Malabar and high range areas, in search of agriculture land.
caption: Mar Varghese Payyappilly Palakkappilly
exif: {"Image XPTitle": "[86, 0, 97, 0, 114, 0, 103, 0, 104, 0, 101, 0, 115, 0, 101, 0, 32, 0, 80, 0, 97, 0, 108, 0, 97, 0, 107, 0, 107, 0, 97, 0, 112, 0, 112, 0, 105, 0, 108, 0, 108, 0, 105, 0, 108, 0, 0, 0]", "Image XPAuthor": "Rahul Johnson Palakkappillil", "Image XPKeywords": "[80, 0, 97, 0, 108, 0, 97, 0, 107, 0, 107, 0, 97, 0, 112, 0, 112, 0, 105, 0, ... ]"}