Wayanad: BJP State President and NDA candidate of Wayanad in the Lok Sabha elections, K Surendran, has demanded that Sultan Bathery’s name must be renamed to the original name ‘Ganapathy Vattom’. Sulthan Bathery is a town in Wayanad district and was given the current name after the invasion of Tipu Sultan of Malabar area more than 200 years ago.
However, Surendran’s demand about the name change has been met with strong opposition from the Left and Congress fronts in the state.
Historians believe that name Ganapathi Vattom was the former name of Sultan Bathery. It was named after a temple dedicated to Lord Ganapathi in the area which was vandalized during the Mysore King’s invasion. The name Ganapathi Vattom is also mentioned in William Logan’s ‘Malabar Manual’ published in 1887. The Ganapathi Temple is believed to have been built during Kulasekhara dynasty(9th and 12th centuries).
The temple was destroyed by the Tipu Sultan’s army and the stones were used to build a fort in the area. The British began calling the name Sultan’s Battery as it was the area where Tipu Sultan had his store of ammunition or battery.
K Surendran questioned the logic behind calling the area Sultan Bathery as the name is associated with an invader. Besides, the name was given by a colonial power. He remarked that Tipu Sultan had destroyed many temples and forcibly converted people. Why should a good place be named after an aggressor, he asked.
Predictably the Left and Congress fronts have begun their opposition to Surendran’s demand of a name change. Ironically, the Kerala Tourism Department’s website itself attests to the fact that Sultan Bathery’s original name is Ganapathi Vattom.
Changing the name of places in Kerala is not new and many such names, which bear the colonial past, have been renamed in the state.
Comments