Sree Rama and Kerala

There are a few authors, as famous as, or, more famous than their creations (books and characters created by them!), in the history of literature in every language -- unlike Sherlock Homes of Arthur C,doyle and Harry Potter of JKR and such others: among them, are Valmiki (Ramayana) and Thunjath Ezhuthachchan (AddhyaatmaRamayana, in Malayalam literature, re-telling Rama's story on a spiritual plane (addhyatmika consideration -- a shade above the intellectual)). Ezhuthacchan's Ramayana is a holy book to many 'malayalees', and is widely read to a prayer routine in many homes in kerala, particularly in the month of 'Karkataka', the 'difficult' month (Aadi for Tamils: july 15 to aug. 15). SreeRama is a popular deity and puranic hero, and Hanuman is a much worshipped 'God', too, in kerala. There are a few largish Rama temples in kerala, Thriprayar fairly famous among them (on the Guruvayur route from Paravur/Kodungallur). The typical kerala-brahmins, Namboodiri's and Thirumulpadu's, have Devi in various forms and 'moods', and Vishnu and some of His more 'popular' avataars (Rama& Krishna, mainly) for their preferred deities; among the settlers in this God's own land, Iyers are 'shaivaites' technically because their home-pooja is Siva-pooja, and, their major routine chanting is 'rudra'&'chamaka', and, Lord Vinayaka's father is worshipped by Iyers to improve chances of an easy passage to the heavenly abode, when the time comes! (Parameswara has Yama in his control) However, the 'kuladaivam' of many Iyers, is Perumaal, MahaVishnu; and, Rama&Krishna are certainly favourites with the Iyer clan, as well. Quite a few of the Rama temples in kerala 'belong' to the Konganies (Prabhu's, Shenoy's, Naik's et al) who settled in after migrating from the Kongan region of Karnataka, bringing along with them, more Vishnu culture, and some Narasimha cult, too, apart from some rules to worship Vamana God! The cocktail resulting from this bit of "Brahmanical Hinduism" in kerala, is really unique, interesting: apart from the Hinduism from the other Hindu clans native to kerala, with their own concept of Durga (kaali, parvathy, lakshmi, saraswathy etc.) and Muruga and Ayyappa and Hanuman, and the related pooja practices, with Lord Ganapathy, the elephant God providing the common thread, and, perhaps, promoting the love of elephants among malayalees! The number of temple festivals right through the year in most parts of the State, and the money and energy spent on them, might be unparallelled; i, for one, sometimes wonder if the people in this region think all the time so much about the festivals and rituals, that God is forgotten in the midst of all this flambuoyance and festivity! Art forms have been receiving tremendous encouragement from this culture: painting, sculpture and various forms of music and dance the chief beneficiaries! SreeRama's popularity is evident from the attention given to SreeRama by the artist(e)s, the popularity probably due to the simplicity and social appeal in the story of Rama&Seetha.