Kottayam
About Kottayam (in Malayalam:കോട്ടയം) Kottayam is a city and a municipality in Kerala. An important
trading center of commercial crops and a publishing centre in Kerala, Kottayam is also the administrative capital of Kottayam District. The town has been in the forefront of modern education in Kerala from the nineteenth century. In 1989 it achieved the distinction of being the first municipal town India to achieve 100% literacy.
History
The name Kottayam is said to have come from 'Kotta Akam' in Malayalam, meaning 'inside the fort'. The Rajas of Thekkumkur, an independent little
kingdom to which Kottayam area belonged, ruled their domain from a location in the
present day Kottayam called Thazhathangadi. When, in the mid-18th century, Marthanda Varma of Travancore annexed Thekkumkur, Kottayam area, along with the areas of the rest of what is today's Kottayam District, became part of the Kingdom of Travancore (later to be the Princely State of Travancore under the British.) After Indian independence, Kottayam eventually became the headquarers of the present Kottayam District.