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After years of waiting, work on a memorial for Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati, eminent Indian philosopher, is finally set to begin at his native village, nestled on the foothills of the Western Ghats. The Aruvapulam grama panchayat in Pathanamthitta has bought 97 cents of land at Mlanthadam, his birthplace, to set up a memorial and study centre in his name. The panchayat has utilised the prize money it received for winning the Swaraj Trophy instituted by the State government for the best grama panchayat in Kerala to buy the land. The ownership documents were officially handed over at a brief ceremony held at the Vidyanikethan Ashram, founded by Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati, on Tuesday (October 28, 2025). Several of his disciples, who have arrived from abroad to commemorate his birth anniversary that falls on November 2, attended the event. C.P. Mohanan Nair, who sold the land for the project at a reduced price, was also felicitated on the occasion. According to Aruvapulam panchayat president Reshma Mariyam Roy, the proposal for the memorial at Mlanthadam was first raised by the local SNDP Union during the Nava Kerala Sadas held in Konni in December 2023. “The search for a suitable site took time, as we explored several locations, including Vakayar and V. Kottayam, before finalising this plot,” she said. The State government has sanctioned ₹7 crore for the initial phase of the project, which will be implemented through the Tourism department, Ms. Roy added. Project cost Confirming the development, Konni MLA K.U. Janeesh Kumar said the project cost is estimated to be around ₹50 crore. “Key components of the memorial will include a library, open-air auditorium, seminar halls,, among others. Once the master plan is finalised and technical sanction secured, work will begin without delay,” he said. Officials said the Tourism department has already engaged a consultancy to prepare the master plan. A land survey for the project has been completed. In addition to the memorial, authorities are considering integrating other sites associated with his life such as the school where he had his primary education and Rakshasan Para, a rock formation on the forest fringes of Pathanamthitta that he frequented, with the memorial. Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati, a scholar of Advaita philosophy and the teachings of Sree Narayana Guru, was born at Mlanthadam on November 2, 1924 as the eldest son of Raghava Panicker and Vamakshiyamma. A teacher in several foreign universities, he was also actively involved in an ecological conservation movement in his home village during the 1990s.
