SSV College, Irapuram, Eranakulam 4.68

Sree Sankara Vidyapeetom College, founded three and half decades ago and named after Sree Sankaracharya, the great visionary, is situated in Irapuram, a remote serene village about 30 kilometers from the sprawling city of cochin. The proximity of Kaladi, the birth place of Adi Sankara, cast a spiritual bearing over the very concept of this situation. Away from towns and traffic-ridden highways, our campus boasts of a perfect learning atmosphere. Set in an environmental bliss, the College has a campus stretching into 18 acres of prime land in these sylvan plain.
The college is managed by The SREE SANKARA TRUST, which was formed in 1965, for promoting higher education in conformity with the deals propagated by the great saint. The trust is owned and managed by Nambuthiris, the traditional Brahmins of Kerala, known as Keraladwijas in Sanskrit. Authentic history reveals that the Namboothiris, in addition to their Vedic duties, were traditional scholars and teachers. Namboothiri houses in any villages in Kerala were virtual centers of learning where knowledge in fields such as Airbed, Astrology, Architecture, ethics and Mathematics were imparted in gurukula system. Several books on these subjects, authored by Nambuthiris, are still considered and followed as root sources of information in these disciplines. Written on palm leaves, many of these basic works are still preserved at the manuscripts library in Trivandrum. It might have been this tradition which prompted our pioneers to think in terms of floating a trust to promote higher education in the name of Adi Sankara, who himself was a great teacher.

Being social workers at the grass root level, the founders of the trust, headed by Sri. P.N. Namboodiri, a life long worker of Bharat Sevak Samaj, was importunate in selecting underdeveloped and educationally backward rural areas to launch their institutions. The two other colleges of the Trust are also isolated, far-flung rural areas of Kerala. These points to the commitment of our founders to the cause of rural upliftment.

Thirty five years back, Irapuram was a God-forsaken village of small-time peasants and agricultural labourerstoiling hard for a meager sustenance. Any sort of developmental projects worth its name were unheard of. The absolute lack of commuting facilities made institutions of higher education practically inaccessible to this rural folk. The beginning of Sree Sankara Vidyapeetom College at Irapuram marked a radical improvement in higher education and at the same time prompted a social awakening of multilateral aspects. Thirty-five years after now, though the region remains still industrially and economically stagnant, the presence of the College renders it an ethos of modern times.