Legend
According to Legend,During Dwapara Yuga, Lord Parasurama was enamoured of a hamlet,a sort of Shangri La, that he found in sylvan settings, surrounded by thick forest. The chiranjeevi stopped beside a rivulet flowing serenely. Captivated by the beauty, he had to dip in it to refresh himself. WHile he was fully immersed in the water, an idol came into his hands. He grasped the idol and brought to the banks and started cleaning it. AS he removed all the mud and dirt, he was stunned by the beauty of the idol in the form of 'Santhana Gopala'. He looked around for a place to install this idol that had a divine halo. Suddenly, he saw a snake nearby and this started moving as soon as it caught the eyes of the Lord. Parasurama took this as a sign from the Almighty and followed it. The snake moved through wild turmeric fields, which made Parasurama christen the place as 'Yellow Land' (Manja Pradesham) which later came to be known as 'Manjapra' or 'Mannapra'
About recent past
Mannapra has produced a lot of eminent scholars in various fields, most popular among them being Venkitchen Vadhyar and Kittappu Vadhyar for Sama Veda, Pithukutti – Appai – Parameshwaran and Narayanan of Jadavallabhar families for Yajur veda. Among musicians, Veena Kanda Bhagavathar, Venkatadri Bhagavathar, Anantharama Bhagavathar, Devesa Bhagavathar, Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar and M.D.Ramanathan were Yesaswees in their own fields in 20th century.
