100 years ago: Buddhism in Kerala

1. At a Glance

• A "100 years ago" archival item reports that a stone image of the Buddha was noticed in Pallikkal, Mavelikkara Taluk, central Travancore [1].
• The image is described as looking just like the well-known Karumandi Kuttan (usually spelt Karumadi Kuttan), which travellers on the backwater route between Alleppey and Quilon knew well [1].
• The villagers worship the image as their local deity, not as the Buddha. This shows how Buddhist remains were absorbed into local Hindu worship [1].
• UPSC value: it ties into the spread of Buddhism to the far south, its decline and absorption into local worship, colonial-era archaeology and the vernacular press, and the later use of Buddhism in Kerala's caste-reform movements. This is GS-I material on art and culture plus modern history.

2. Why in the News

• The Hindu reprinted the 1926 report in its "100 years ago" archive column, in the Chennai print edition of 6 November 2026, page 15 [1].
• Apart from this centenary reprint, it is a static topic with no recent trigger.

3. Background & Evolution

• 3rd century BCE: Ashoka's Rock Edicts II and XIII name the Keralaputras as a neighbouring people outside his empire. This is the earliest epigraphic mention of Kerala [2].
• Sangam and post-Sangam period: Tamil Buddhist epics such as Manimekalai show Buddhism present in the far south [2].
• 9th century CE: the Paliyam copper plates of the Ay king Vikramaditya Varaguna record grants to the Buddhist shrine Srimulavasam, which was probably on the central Kerala coast [2].
• c. 8th–12th century: Buddhism declined as the Bhakti movement and Brahmanical revival gained ground. Many viharas were turned into temples, and Buddha images survived as local deities [2].
• 3 November 1926 (Cochin dateline): Mr. K.S. Nilakantan Unni, Mahopadhyaya, told the public about the Pallikkal Buddha image through the columns of the Malayala Manorama [1].
• 1920s context: Kumaran Asan wrote Chandala Bhikshuki (1922) and Sree Buddha Charitham. Mitavadi C. Krishnan and Sahodaran Ayyappan used Buddhism to push for caste reform [2].

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact	Source
Find spot	Pallikkal, Mavelikkara Taluk, central Travancore	[1]
Material	Stone image of the Buddha	[1]
Comparable image	Karumandi (Karumadi) Kuttan	[1]
Where the comparable image is known	Backwater route between Alleppey (Alappuzha) and Quilon (Kollam)	[1]
Status in 1926	Worshipped by villagers as the deity who decides their fate	[1]
Who reported it	K.S. Nilakantan Unni, Mahopadhyaya	[1]
Where it was reported	Malayala Manorama (Malayalam newspaper)	[1]
Report dateline	Cochin, 3 November 1926	[1]
Princely state of 1926	Travancore (Mavelikkara and Pallikkal fall in it)	[1]
Karumadi Kuttan location today	Karumadi, near Ambalappuzha, Alappuzha district	[2]
Typical form of Kerala Buddha images	Seated in meditation posture (dhyana mudra), granite	[2]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Historical

• The images in the Alleppey–Quilon–Mavelikkara belt suggest a group of Buddhist sites along the coast and backwaters of central Kerala [1].
• Buddhism probably spread along sea trade routes (links with Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean) rather than only by land [2].

Social / Cultural

• The image was being worshipped as a village guardian deity [1]. This is a classic case of absorption (the image is kept but its Buddhist identity is lost) rather than destruction.
• In the 1920s, Ezhava reformers used Buddhism as an egalitarian alternative to caste hierarchy [2].

Art & Architecture

• The 1926 report compares the two images by appearance ("exactly similar"). This kind of stylistic comparison is the basic method for identifying unlabelled sculpture [1].
• Kerala Buddha images are usually granite, seated and meditative, and are often found with heads or limbs damaged [2].

Governance / Heritage Administration

• In 1926 the discovery came to light through a private scholar and a vernacular newspaper, not through a formal state survey [1]. This shows how much colonial-era heritage records depended on local intellectuals.
• Today such images fall under Kerala State Archaeology or the ASI, depending on whether they are protected under the AMASR Act, 1958 [2].

Media / Public Sphere

• The Malayala Manorama served as a channel for antiquarian discussion, and the item was then picked up by Cochin news coverage [1]. This reflects the growth of the Malayalam press in the 1920s.

6. Recent Developments (last 12-18 months)

• 6 Nov 2026: The Hindu reprinted the 1926 "Buddhism in Kerala" item in its archive column, in the Chennai edition, page 15 [1].
• I could not retrieve any other dated development from a whitelisted source.

7. Prelims Hooks

• A Buddha image at Pallikkal is in the Mavelikkara Taluk of central Travancore [1].
• The Karumadi (Karumandi) Kuttan Buddha was familiar to travellers on the Alleppey–Quilon backwater route [1].
• The 1926 report of the Pallikkal Buddha appeared in the Malayala Manorama [1].
• It was reported by K.S. Nilakantan Unni, who held the title Mahopadhyaya [1].
• In 1926 the villagers worshipped the Buddha image as their presiding deity [1].
• Ashoka's Rock Edict II names the Keralaputras among the neighbouring peoples [2].
• Srimulavasam was a Buddhist shrine named in the Paliyam copper plates of the Ay king Vikramaditya Varaguna [2].
• Chandala Bhikshuki is a Buddhist-themed poem by Kumaran Asan [2].
• Mavelikkara, Karumadi and Bharanikkavu are all in or near today's Alappuzha district [2].

8. Why 'It Looks Like the Buddha' Is Not Full Proof

• The 1926 claim rests on looks alone
• The report calls the Pallikkal image a Buddha because it looks "exactly similar" to Karumadi Kuttan [1].
• The report gives no inscription, no date and no record of a dig [1].

• So the identification is a matter of style only. It is a good first clue, but it is not proof.

• The comparison image is itself unlabelled

• Karumadi Kuttan is known as a Buddha mainly from its form, not from any written record on the stone [1].
• Matching one unlabelled image to another unlabelled image does not prove what either of them is. It only shows that the two are alike.

• For a Mains answer: say "identified as a Buddha on stylistic grounds". Do not write "proved to be a Buddha".

• Serious study came later, and from outside the state

• The report came from a private scholar writing in a newspaper [1].
• A full academic survey, P.C. Alexander's Buddhism in Kerala, came only in 1949. It was published by Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu [4].
• So for about two decades, the evidence for Buddhism in Kerala was mostly scattered press reports and local knowledge.

9. The Stone Survived, but Its Buddhist Identity Did Not

• Why Buddhism faded without being wiped out
• Britannica gives one main reason for Buddhism's decline in India: it was absorbed into a revived Hindu tradition [3].
• Buddhism's own tolerance made this easier. It did not draw hard lines against local gods [3].

• Pallikkal fits this pattern. The image was not broken. It was kept and worshipped as the village deity who decides people's fate [1].

• Why there was no one left to remember

• Over time Buddhism became mostly a religion of monks, and it lost touch with ordinary lay followers [3].
• When the monasteries closed, nobody in the village remembered the image as the Buddha. Only the stone was left.

• By 1926 the villagers worshipped it without knowing it was the Buddha [1]. It took an outside scholar to put a name to it.

• "Absorption" is not a fully happy word

• The note's framing, "absorption, not erasure", is right about the object. The stone was kept and still honoured.
• But the meaning was erased. The Buddhist teaching, the monks and the community linked to the image all disappeared.

• A balanced answer accepts both points: the stone was kept safe, but the community that made it was forgotten.

• Kerala is not the only case of survival

• Britannica notes that in far eastern Bengal and Assam, a few Buddhists kept an unbroken tradition from before the Muslim period [3].
• In those places the community lived on. In Kerala only the images lived on, under Hindu worship.
• This contrast shows that Buddhism's decline took different forms in different regions.

10. What Should Happen to a Buddha That Is Still Worshipped

• Heritage rules and living worship pull in different directions
• The Pallikkal image was an active village deity in 1926, not an abandoned ruin [1].
• If it is treated as a protected monument, there will be rules on how it is handled. The villagers' rituals may not fit those rules.

• If it is treated only as a deity, its history can be lost when it is painted, moved or replaced.

• Kerala State Archaeology should first find out what survives

• Begin with the sites named in the 1926 report (Pallikkal and Karumadi) and the sites listed in P.C. Alexander's 1949 study [1][4].

• Record each image's present condition and who looks after it, before deciding whether to give it legal protection.

• Make the old research easy to find

• Alexander's 1949 book is already digitised, through the Archaeological Survey of India, on the Ministry of Culture's Indian Culture portal [4].
• Kerala State Archaeology could link each surveyed image to this record. Then a find like the one reported in 1926 is not left only in old newspaper columns.

11. Anchors for Answers

• Report/Committee: P.C. Alexander, Buddhism in Kerala (Annamalai University, 1949). It is the first full academic survey of the subject, and is now digitised on the Indian Culture portal [4].
• Law/Case: Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958. It is the legal framework for protecting such images and sites.
• Comparison: Eastern Bengal and Assam, where a few Buddhist communities kept their tradition alive. In Kerala only the images survived, and they were taken into Hindu worship [3][1].

12. Mains Relevance

• GS-I: Indian culture, meaning art forms, literature and architecture from ancient to modern times. Also modern Indian history, covering socio-religious reform movements.
• GS-I: Spread and decline of Buddhism, and religious syncretism.
• Possible question stems: 1. "The survival of Buddha images as village deities in Kerala reflects absorption, not erasure." Examine with examples. (150 words) 2. Trace the spread of Buddhism in south India and explain why it declined after the early medieval period. (250 words) 3. How did reformers in early 20th-century Kerala use Buddhist ideas against caste hierarchy? (150 words)

13. Related Topics to Study Next

• Ashoka's Rock Edicts II and XIII: they name the Keralaputras, Cholas, Pandyas and Satiyaputras.
• Manimekalai and the Sangam corpus: the main literary evidence for Buddhism in the Tamil region.
• Nagapattinam Buddhist bronzes and Chudamani Vihara: another coastal Buddhist centre in the south.
• Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda: the main Andhra Buddhist centres and the source of southern Buddhist art.
• Bhakti movement (Alvars and Nayanars): a major reason Buddhism and Jainism declined in the south.
• SNDP, Kumaran Asan and Sahodaran Ayyappan: Buddhism as a tool of reform in Kerala.
• AMASR Act, 1958: the legal framework for protecting such antiquities.
• Jainism in Kerala (e.g., Kallil Temple, Chitharal): a parallel case of Sramanic remains being absorbed.

14. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Bhakti movement (History): Rise of devotional Hinduism is a main reason Buddhism declined and its images became local deities.
• Ashokan edicts (History): Rock Edicts II and XIII give the earliest mention of the Keralaputras, showing early contact with the far south.
• Manimekalai (History): Tamil Buddhist epic that shows Buddhism was present in the far south, close to Kerala.
• Dhyana mudra (History): Kerala Buddha images are typically seated in this meditation posture, which helps identify unlabelled sculpture.
• Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958 (History): Legal framework that protects such Buddha images and sites today.
• Chudamani Vihara (History): Another coastal Buddhist centre in the south, showing Buddhism spread along sea routes.

15. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Spelling: the article writes Karumandi Kuttan, while most sources use Karumadi Kuttan. Don't treat them as two different images [1].
• Taluk mix-up: Pallikkal is placed in Mavelikkara taluk, not Ambalappuzha [1].
• Princely state: Mavelikkara was in Travancore, even though the news carried a Cochin dateline. Cochin was a separate princely state [1].
• Edict numbers: the Keralaputras appear in Rock Edicts II and XIII, not in the Pillar Edicts [2].
• Assuming the Buddha images were destroyed: in Kerala the usual pattern was continued worship under a new local identity [1].