Ettara Yogam

The Ettara Yogam or the Council of Eight and a Half was a body of Trustees of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple which is the richest and most well endowed temples in the world now (wealth estimation is going on as of yesterday, 1st Aug 2011),situated in Thiruvananthapuram, Travancore and religiously most important to the Maharajahs of Travancore.

Origin

The Ettara Yogam was formed in the year 15th century. and its members consisted of moopil swamiyar president(-who is without vote but his verdict final when a tie about an issue arises with equal votes).In Malayali Brahmins, Potty families -south of changanassery in travancore are designated as pottis and they in north of changanassery (pottis-malayala Brahmins)are designated as namboothiries usually. Seven potti families and a representative from a Nair family initially who assumed the role of the Temple protector. Besides these trustees, who had one vote each in deciding the matters of the Temple management, the Maharajah of Venad as it was known then had a half vote, rendering the ruler of the land thereby almost powerless in deciding the affairs of the Devaswom of Padmanabhapuram. The Head of the nair family is known as Karanavar. The Karanavar of the nair palliyadi family is a member of Ettara Yogam of Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple (only Nair representative). The present Karanavar or nair member is Srikarnam Palliyadi A.E. Ramakrishna Kurup of Azhakath Bungalow,...
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