Chirayainkeezhu
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Chirayinkeezhu is one of the Six taluks of Thiruvananthapuram District. Chirayinkeezhu town, the taluk headquarters, is about 33 km north of Thiruvananthapuram city.
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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.