Varuthalaivilan

The village has a traceable history of about 300 years. Maruthadi Vinayagar temple[9] in Varuththalaivilan is about 300 years old and an Amman temple further north of the Vinayagar temple said to be even older. A pond and a large Terminalia arjuna tree (Maruthamaram)[10] and a large banyan tree near the temple make a good landmark. The temple is highly revered by not only the people from the village but also from the people from neighboring villages.

According to word of mouth passed down by ancestors of the village, it was founded by few families about few hundred years ago and expanded into more than hundred families. Most of the families are interrelated and familiar with one another.

The village has been mainly an agricultural village but due to modern education initiated by the American Ceylon Mission in the early eighteen hundreds resulted in producing large number professionals. More details of American Ceylon mission [11] is available at Yale University library web site.

Varuthalaivilan American Mission Tamil mixed school was established by Vinasithampy Thamppipillai in 1866 and it was functioning at the village until June 1990.[12] The school building was located in the middle part of the village.[13]

Varuthalaivilan youth league was kicked off in early 20th century. It owns a playground and Varuthalivilan community center which is located adjacent to cancer home but currently damaged [14]

By the late 1970s the village had become one of the largest agricultural villages in Jaffna District and produced onion, chili, manioc, eggplant, tomato, tobacco, banana etc. Large number of Borassus (Palmyra Palm) trees (Tamil: பனை மரம்)found in the village enabled the villagers to produce toddy a beverage for the local population.

A cancer home was built at the village in 1989 in the land donated by Thampimuthu Thampirasa. It is about one kilo-meter east of Tellippalai Hospital or Tellippalai Base Hospital.[15]

Being in the high security zone for 25 years, the village had become a jungle area, cancer home ruins and the pond near the temple were the only landmarks visible in the Google satellite map until it was released to the owners in April 2015.

In March 2015 Cabinet of Sri Lanka decided to release 400 acres in Palai Veemankamam south and Varuthalaivilan, 300 acres in Kadduvan and Kurumbasiddy [16] for re-settlement [8] After about 25 years of abandonment, almost all the houses were damaged. Most houses were without any wooden fittings including the roof and some houses are totally ruined. The area was covered with bushes and trees. Since then the bushes are being cleared and the temple is being rebuilt. Some lands still contain land mines and are being cleared slowly.

Vidwa Siromani C. Ganesha Iyer,[19][20] a famous Tamil scholar served as the priest at the Maruthadi Vinayagar Temple during the middle part of the 20th century. One of his famous works is his interpretation of old Tamil literature.[21][22]

Prof. P. Selvanayagam [23] First person from the village obtained PhD(Engineering).

Dr S. Sivalingam [24] Second person from the village obtained PhD (Fisheries).