Thrissur I Trichur / Trissur) pronunc...

Thrissur I Trichur / Trissur) pronunciation (help·info) (Malayalam: തൃശ്ശൂര്‍) is a city situated in the center of Kerala (Malayalam: േകരളം) state, India. It is the headquarters of Thrissur District. The city has a population of around 3.2 lakhs. It is an important cultural centre, and is known as the 'cultural capital of Kerala'. It is famous for the Thrissur Pooram festival, the most colourful and spectacular temple festival of Kerala. It has a large number of well-known temples, Thiruvambady temple, Vadakkumnatha temple and Paramekkavu temple, and two churches of note, the Our Lady of Lourdes Metropolitan Cathedral and the Our Lady of Dolour's "New Church" Basilica (the biggest in South Asia). The Kerala Police Academy (second largest in India) is situated in this city.

History

An elephant carrying Thidambu during Thrissur pooram festival.

From very early times Thrissur has been a centre of learning. With the decline of Buddhism and Jainism due to the growing supremacy of Brahminism during the revival of Hinduism, Thrissur became an important centre of Sanskrit learning^{[citation needed]}. It is believed that the great Hindu Saint, Adi Shankara, was born in answer to the prayer made by Arayambal and Sivaguru at Vadakkunathan temple. Sankara's disciples Hastamalaka, Thotaka, Padmapada and Sudhachara established four Madoms(mutt) in the city, namely the Northern Madom, the Middle Madom, the ln-Between Madom and the Southern Madom respectively^{[citation needed]}.

This sacred land had been visited by other religious icons like Swami Vivekananda, St. Thomas, and Sree Narayana Guru, who fought against the caste system in Hindu religion, founded his first temple in Koorkanchery^{[citation needed]}.

Thrissur, for a brief period, was the capital of the Kochi kingdom. The Shaktan Thampuran palace, which was the abode of the Cochin king, Shaktan Thampuran, was recently renovated by the Archeological Survey of India.

Thrissur gained prominence under the reign of Raja Rama Varma, who is referred as Sakthan Thampuran, in 1790. It was Sakthan Thampuran to whom the modern Thrissur is ever indebted, because it was he who rebuilt Thrissur from the destruction caused by the attacks of Tipu Sultan's army.

Thrissur city has played a significant part in the political history of South India. Even as early as 1919 a committee of the Indian National Congress was functioning in Thrissur^{[citation needed]}. In the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1921, several persons in city took active part and courted arrest.

Long ago, the vast open area around the Vadakkumnatha temple was a magnificent teak forest called Thekkinkaadu. Today, the forest has given way to one of the most important cultural, educational and commercial hub of Kerala.