Panaikulam


Panaikulam or Panaikkulam is a village located in the eastern part of Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu, India. The inhabitants of this village are primarily Tamil Muslims.

History

The history of Panaikulam is known for the past 200 years only. Before that, there seems to be no recorded history. From the oral information collected from the old people and with the help of a will document written by one of the descendants in the family of first migrants, it is known that Tamil-speaking Muslims migrated from adjacent parts of Ramanathapuram to a place with pond and lot of palm trees. They named it as Panai kulam. This pond served as the water source for the people and their cattle. Slowly the migrated population moved towards the inner parts of the village and established a mosque for praying.
The migrations continued from the adjacent villages of Ramanathapuram and Panaikulam became a Muslim village. Some of the migrants used handlooms to weave the cloths and made business out of it. After some time, the mosque was built up using natural stones. It is indeed a very rare architectural beauty. During the nineteenth century, opportunities present in Malaya attracted Panaikulam people and many of them went to Malaya to earn money. They mostly settled in Penang in businesses such as money exchange and restaurants.

Language

The primary language spoken by the people of Panaikulam is Tamil. Even though the accent is similar to that of the Tamil spoken in rest of Tamil Nadu, it has unique words probably borrowed from Arabic, Malay and Urdu. Certain peculiar words like nadayam and aanam are used.

Food and cuisine

The food habits practised by the Panaikulam people have similarities with Tamil Muslim cuisine, Sri Lankan Muslim cuisine and Malay cuisine. For example, the foods such as Watalappam and Idiyappam are regularly prepared and eaten by Sri Lankan Tamil Muslims and Tamil Muslims settled in Malaysia and Singapore.

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