The Emblem

 

The emblem of Payyanur College, Payyanur is a symbolic articulation of the foundational and functional objectives of the college as a democratic and secular social institution of India.   It signifies the subtle and creatively conflicting pattern of relationships that underlies Nature, Education, Tradition and Humanity in general.

The statement “Established in 1965” tops the shield-shaped emblem as a title bar and it marks that momentous year which found the formal entry of a potential educational institution into the cultural scenario of North Malabar.  Below it is the motto of the college “Vidhyadhanam Sarvadhanat Pradhanam” which may be translated into English as “Education is the most precious of all riches”.  This aphorism, given a Sanskrit expression in the emblem adds on to the phrase, “Payyanur College” ,and both together describes a word-circle which highlights the multilingual cultural and educational context of Kerala The inner core of the emblem is a circle that accommodates an opened-up text, a traditional lamp and  a lotus in bloom  with a figure formed of three concentric circles looking like atomic shells placed adjacent to it, all the four neatly kept in position by a three dimensional, three-pronged star-like geometrical shape.  The cultural icons that populate the core are eloquent articulators of Learning (the opened text), Enlightenment and Knowledge (Lamp), Nature (Lotus) and adventures into the micro and macro worlds beyond the cradle of human habitation (Atomic Orbits).  The emblem thus encodes the universe, the text and the human adventures in the world of ideas and education and marks out the seminal role of this institution in bringing forth a community of human beings who would do justice to its existence.