Uthrada Kizhi presented to royal family members

KOTTAYAM: The tradition of giving Uthrada Kizhi to the descendants of Kochi royal family was performed by Revenue Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan here on Thursday.The practice was started by the erstwhile  rulers of Kochi as part of offering money to the woman members of the family to buy clothes for the harvest festival. Now the onus lay on the government to fulfil the king’s order passed long back. There are 66 beneficiaries for the Uthrada kizhi, the amount of which has increased from  Rs. 14 to Rs. 1015 this year. Until the previous year, Soumyawathi Thamburatti, was receiving only  Rs. 14. “I have been receiving the amount for the last 56 years. The amount kept varying at different periods,”  she, said. A member of the royal family, Thamburatti has sons at Kottayam, Ernakulam and London.  She migrated to Kottayam from Ernakulam after the marriage with A R Raja Raja Varma about 45 years back.