Chirayainkeezhu
Chirayinkeezhu is one of the Six taluks of Thiruvananthapuram District. Chirayinkeezhu town, the taluk headquarters, is about 33 km north of Thiruvananthapuram city.
Chirayinkeezhu is famous for the Sarkara Devi Temple, an ancient and one of the most important Devi temples in South India. The 10-day Sarkara Bharani festival in March-April is a major event attended by devotees from all over, and draws a fair crowd of tourists too. Over the years what has distinguished Chirayinkeezhu taluk has been the fact that it is the birthplace of a host of illustrious personalities like Raja Ravi Varma, the painter among princes and a prince among painters, the great poet and social reformer Kumaran Asan , the practical saint and sanyasin Sree Narayana Guru, Prem Nazir, the great Malayalam thespian and film’s ‘ever-green hero’, still lovingly remembered as an actor and a gentleman, to name just a few.