At a glance
Ittiva Grama Panchayat is one of the eight panchayats in the Chadayamangalam block of Kollam district. This panchayat has an area of 43.89 sq. km. Ittiva Grama Panchayat is a special grade panchayat. Ittiva is a small area near Vayanam, the headquarters of the present Ittiva Grama Panchayat. It can be considered that the present Ittiva Grama Panchayat area was part of the Ai kingdom, which was called ‘Aoi’, which existed between the Pampa river and Kanyakumari. Like in any other part of Kerala, there was a social order based on feudalism here too. The landlords brought people from different places to settle for agricultural work. There was a system of constantly shifting them and making the land fertile, keeping the necessary workers and driving away the rest. Untouchability was also a prominent feature. The landlords of all religious sects maintained the same caste character. Most of the area was covered in forests. There were only dirt roads to travel. The dirt roads were built in those areas to transport the agricultural implements to the Kadakkal and Anchal areas. The most important of these were the dirt roads that existed before the present-day Iyirakuzhi-Anchal road, Kadakkal Chunda, Kottukkal and Anchal road. The people of the respective areas organized and cleared all the dirt roads of that time and turned them into cart tracks. The people themselves cut rivers, streams, ponds and established libraries. The Kottukkal cave temple, which has a history of centuries, is in this panchayat.