A Summer Night Drenched in Vani's Memorable Melodies

Revisiting the Shrine of Karamadai Ranganatha

The mothers of yesteryear Coimbatore had a strategy to feed their adamant little children by playfully threatening them that the Dasari ( Religious mendicant) of Karamadai Ranganathar Temple, who would visit every house in the locality with his huge Theepandham ( Flambeau), would whisk away the little ones, if they refused to eat food. Appropriately, the Dasari too would be seen frightening, clad in short drawers with strings of small bells tied to his wrists and ankles. Sporting a big Namam ( A Vaishnavite religious mark) on his forehead, he would look possessed, as he chanted Govindha Parak ! Govindha Parak !and danced in front of the house.

Though such Dasaris of Lord Ranganatha are hardly seen nowadays in the city, the annual festival of the Arulmigu Aranganathasamy Temple is held in fervor with the participation of a sea of devotees at Karamadai every year. And the grand festival was over last week.

On the origin of the shrine, legend has it that a cow from the herd of an Irula tribesman shed its milk on an anthill amidst the Kaarai plants (Canthium parviflorum), after which a temple for Lord Ranganatha emerged there. It is also interesting to note the etymology behind Karamadai, which literally means a water channel near the abounding Kaarai plants.

Nevertheless, history informs that the temple was constructed by the Vaishnavite Vijayanagara kings, who, like their Shaivite counterparts, wanted to exploit the forest wealth of Coimbatore's aboriginal Irula tribe by making them embrace their 'official' religion. With the Western Ghats being around 10 km from the temple, the Vijayanagara kings named the hills surrounding the shrine as 'Ranganathar Mudi', 'Perumal Mudi' and so on. What's more, they made even the tribal deity Pettathamman as the wife of Lord Ranganatha.

Decades ago, the devotees of Coimbatore practised a culture of worshipping the Dasaris of Lord Ranganatha by offering Kavalam ( Plantain fruits cut up into small slices, and mixed with sugar, jaggery, fried grain or beaten rice) into their mouths. The Dasaris, who would eat a little of the Kavalam, spit the remainder into the hands of the devotees, which the latter, unimaginably, ate in the superstition that it would cure them of all diseases !

It may be noted that popular Tamil writer Perumal Murugan was hounded by the Hindutva and caste outfits, since he had said in his novel Madhorubhagan that childless women in Thiruchengode indulge in consensual sex at the Arthanareewarar Temple in order to get conceived . But, it is surprising to know that the same practice was said to be in vogue at Karamadai Ranganathar temple too, as noted anthropologist and ethnographer Edgar Thurston recorded on pages 147 and 148 of his book Omens and Superstitions in Southern India thus:

“ Some people say that, many years ago, barren women used to take a vow to visit the temple at the time of the festival, and, after offering Kavalam, have sexual intercourse with the Dhasaris. The temple authorities, however, profess ignorance of this practice”

Compiled by : B. Meenakshi Sundaram

Sources: 1) Sappe Gokalu – A collection of Irula tribal songs – R. Lakshmanan

                2) Omens and Superstitions in Southern India - Edgar Thurston

                3) Naali - A documentary film on the Irula tribe - R.Murugavel, R. Lakshmanan and    Ashok

Link to my article in The New Indian Express :http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/4731591

A Greeting, which Became the Village

Jayakumar, a resident of Kothavadi, a village near Kinathukadavu, regularly offers food to a mother and her child. But to the surprise of everyone, the duo is not alive today and they just stand as images on a hero stone near his house today.

Pointing at the hero stone, Jayakumar says:

“The woman, whom the people of Kothavadi call as Ottalamman, one day appeared in my dream and asked me food for her child”

Ever since the dream, Jayakumar has been performing Pooja for the memorial and ‘offering’ food to the duo. The hero stone, which portrays the mother and child, also contains the images of two bulls being in the posture of hitting the woman with their horns.

According to an oral tradition in Kothavadi, the hero stone was erected in memory of a woman from a Boyer community, who was killed by the bulls while grazing them on the meadow. With Ottar meaning members of the Boyer community, the villagers say that the female deity has been suitably named as Ottalamman. However, another tale prevalent in the village maintains that the hero stone was erected to honour a pregnant woman, who died after the attack of a bull while she was on the way to a farmland, carrying lunch to her husband.

Ancient Tamils of the Kongu region followed the tradition of erecting hero stones in memory of the warriors, who were killed in the battle for redeeming their village’s cattle from an enemy troop. Such memorials were also set up to honour the village guards, who met their end by fighting against tigers. Being suitably called as Pulikuththi Kall, the memorials can still be seen in the localities like Irugur and Pattanam on the outskirts of Coimbatore.

But, it is interesting that such ‘hero stones’ were also erected in memory of women.

“In ancient Kongunadu people erected ‘hero stones’ for women, who ended their lives by jumping into their husbands’ funeral pyre. Reminding the cruel practice called Sati, the memorials were called Maasatikals. Moreover, hero stones were also erected to honour the women, who met their doom in pregnancy. And such a memorial is the Ottalamman’s” Explains epigraphist D.Sundaram, who dates the hero stone to a period between 16^th and 19^th century.

The village Kothavadi got its name after the Chera king Ravi Kothai. Explaining the etymology behind the name, a resident of Kothavadi informs that the people’s greeting the king as ‘Kothai Vaazhi’ (May you prosper, King Kothai) has got corrupted to Kothavadi! 

However, the people will be glad, if their hamlet is renamed as ‘Annadurai Vaazhi’, since Mayilsamy Annadurai, the project director of Chandrayan, is the native of Kothavadi!  

 Link to my article in The New Indian Express: http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/4297617

An Art Critic, Poet and Film Maker

 

 Photo S.Kamalakannan

The first pieces of art, which Monikhaa an art critic, poet and documentary film maker, came across in her life, were the pencil sketches of yesteryear actors Gemini Ganesan, Lakshmi, Bharathi and so on, as her mother, who was an art teacher, drew them.

“I still remember the images drawn by my mother Kamala, which looked like vintage black and white photos” she recalls.

                                                                                    

An Assistant professor in the Department of Visual Communications, Avinashilingam Deemed University for Women, Monikhaa is also a passionate writer. Her monthly column Naveenathuvam – Kizhakkum Merkkum (Modernism – East and West) appeared for around two years in Theeranathi, a literary magazine of the popular Tamil periodical Kumudham. Besides, she has penned a book of Tamil poems Thikku Thulaithozhiththal (Losing directions) and made a documentary film Azhagin Elimai on noted Tamil writer R.Chudamani 

 

Sharing her early day interests in art, Monikhaa reminisces:   

“The first pieces of art, which held me spellbound, were the illustrations by artist Maniam for the celebrated Tamil novel Ponniyin Selvan. Done by using the India Ink, Maniam’s appropriate and lively illustrations for the scenes in the historical novel would be so realistic”

Involved in drawing similar realistic images on one morning, Monikhaa even forgot that the day was her English examination and had to rush to school being late.

“But, I had always been a class topper in all my academic studies” she informs.  

Despite a native of Pollachi, Monikhaa had her studies in Government College of Fine Arts in Chennai and Maharaja Sayajirao University of Barado, where she bagged a gold medal for academic excellence.   

 

Also spending around ten years in New York, Monikhaa says that her days in the US provided her an opportunity to study the original paintings of popular artists like Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci

“While in India people show little concern for art, I was surprised to come across that each art work exhibited at the museums in New York is accompanied with its detailed background”

Substantiating her point that most in the country hardly show any interest in revisiting the past, Monikhaa, a passionate lover of antiquities, recalls how the illiterate people in Chennai used to call a museum in Egmore as ‘Seththa College’ or ‘The College for the dead’ ! 

 

The art critic, who presented her research papers in the symposia conducted at various places in India and abroad, says that she has a great flair for studying Jain art.

Recalling the records found in various pieces of literature on the Shaivite king Koon Pandiyan’s impaling a total of 8000 Tamil Jains in Madurai, Monikhaa even explains the cruel scene from the picture of a sculpture. 

“Though much in Tamil literature including the masterpieces like Silapathikaram, Neelakesi and  Soolamani were the contributions by Jain scholars, it is sad that even in museums the statuettes of Jain Tirtankaras are not given importance on par with the Chola bronzes” she rues.  

Link to my article in The New Indian Express:http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/4291191

Quenching the Thirst of a Dead, Pregnant Woman

In an age, when people are caught in the rat race, they have little time to walk and frequently travel from place to place by motor vehicles. As a result, they soon fall victims to lifestyle diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes. But, just imagine the ones in yesteryear Coimbatore, who traveled even to distant places only on foot, which kept them hale and hearty.  

Though it is impossible to discover their past journeys, the district still has a few remnants of history to tell the present generation on how their ancestors walked to distant places carrying things bundled up on the head and shoulders. And one such historical remnant is the Sumaithaangi Kall.

The Sumaithaangi Kall was a platform set up with two large pieces of stone erected vertically and their tops bridged by a horizontal bar. It was set up on the shady roadsides to facilitate the tired travelers rest their burdens on it and relax for a little time between their journeys. Philanthropists, who sought happiness in carrying out several charity works in the society, practised erecting such Sumaithaangi Kalls on the roadsides of Coimbatore.

Nonetheless, it is paining to come across a five and a half- foot tall Sumaithaangi Kall at Naduvacheri near Avinashi, erected in memory of a woman who died in her pregnancy. Ironically, the travelers could have felt pity for her, who died even before resting her ‘pleasant’ burden on the earth.

The monument, which contains the bas relief of the pregnant woman, has an inscription, which reads that it was erected by one Irulappa Nadar from Karukan kattupudur in 1936. It informs that he had also set up a Thanneer Panthal (The place where drinking water and buttermilk are given free of charge to passers-by during the hot seasons). The inscription has recorded that Irulappa Nadar also dug up a well near the Sumaithaangi Kall.

While the purpose of erecting the Sumaithaangi Kall was to help travelers rest their burden for a little time during their journeys, the objective behind setting up of a Thanneer Panthal is to quench the thirst of not only the travelers, but even the  dead!

Showing the truth in the point, another stone inscription says that a Thanneer Panthal was set up at the spot where the Chozha queen Veeramadhevi bade farewell to her life by jumping into the funeral pyre of her husband, King Rajendra Chola I. The inscription also notes that the Thanneerpanthal was set up to quench the thirst of both the dead king and queen.

Learned from such sources, it seems that the dead, pregnant woman of Naduvacheri could be quenching her thirst from a Thanneer Panthal, whose location is known only to her!    

 Source: Sumaithaanki – Epigraphist D Sundaram

Link to my article in The New Indian Express:http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/4053631 

Step on this Stone inscription, Please!

The artistic ability for composing conventional poems filled with wit and pun seems to have been quite common among ancient Tamils, as read from a popular verse in Viveka Cinthamani, an anonymous classical work in Tamil. The poem, which is in the form of a conversation between a Tamil scholar and an indigenous medical practitioner, reminds the belief of the people on a stone inscription found at Saravanampatti in Coimbatore.

The verse in Viveka Cinthamani introduces a Tamil scholar who meets a traditional medical practitioner and seeks his advice on how to take out a Nerunchi thorn (Tribulus terrestris) lodged in his foot. But, with the pride of being a poet, the Tamil scholar expressed his complaint in a complex language, whose superficial reading would differently mean that he was, instead, bitten by a five-headed cobra while heading to the river!

The Tamil scholar said to the medical practitioner thus:

Mukkaalai Kayyil Eduthu

Moovirandukkku Ekayile

Akkaalai Aynthuthalai Naagam

Aazhnthu kadithathu Kaan

With Mukkaal meaning a staff, Moovirandu, the numeral ‘6’ (Which also means the river as Aaru in Tamil) and Aynthuthalai Naagam, a five-headed cobra (A metaphor for the branches of the thorn in Tribulus terrestris), the Tamil scholar said that the sharp thorns pierced his foot while he was on the way to the river holding his staff.

Nonetheless, the medical practitioner, who too was skilled in composing a similar poem, suggested:

Paththurathan Puththiranin Mithiranin

Saththuruvin Paththiniyin

Kaal Vaanki Thei

With Paththurathan meaning King Dhasaratha as the etymology of his name suggests that he was the possessor of ten chariots, Puthiranin Mithiran  his son Rama’s friend Sukreeva, Saththuruvin Paththini  meaning Sukreeva’s enemy Vaali’s wife and Kaal Vaanki Thei literally meaning ‘Get the foot of Vaali’s wife and brush on the floor !’

But, with the wife of Vaali’s name being ‘Thaarai’, what the native medical practitioner suggested through the phrase ‘Kaal Vaanki’, is just to shorten the long sound ‘Thaa’ in her name into ‘Tha’, Then the word would read ‘Tharai’ meaning earth and not ‘Thaarai’ signifying Vaali’s wife.

Interestingly, in the complex poem, the native medical practitioner just advised the Tamil scholar to rub his foot on earth to get the thorn removed!

Reminding this interesting anecdote, a stone inscription found at Saravanampatti reads that one would get a cure from illness, if the person places his or her leg on the epigraph and meditate for a little time. An oral tradition in Saravanampatti maintains that the epigraph was erected by an indigenous medical practitioner, who provided cure to several diseases to the people of Saravanampatti in the bygone era.

Source: Maruthuvam Sollum Kalvettu – Epigraphist D. Sundaram.

Link to my article in The New Indian Express: http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/3900480

Throwing Light on Gifts Made to Big Temple

                                                                                                 Photo- S.Kamalakannan   

In contrast to the present age, when some corrupt government officials swindle public money under the pretext of carrying out certain civic works, it is surprising that the king Raja Raja Chola recorded in his stone inscriptions even a little contribution made by a poor kitchen maid for the construction of the majestic Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur.

Throwing light on this and various other glories of the king, R. Nagaswamy, Former Director, Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu, said:

“Raja Raja Chola has mentioned the contribution made by an Adukkalai Pendu (Kitchen maid) in a stone inscription, as he wanted to document even a commoner’s gift to the deity”

Addressing the seven-day exhibition on the Big Temple of Thanjavur in the city, organized by the Coimbatore chapter of INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) on Saturday evening, the octogenarian archeologist pointed out:  

 

“Based on certain Sanskrit stone inscriptions, I do not agree with the general opinion of many other historians, who say that temples are mere institutions of social and financial administration. I am sure that they were built only for the cause of devotion” he added.

The controversial archeologist, who earned the wrath of several Tamil scholars for his opinion that Tamil got the classical language status only by the assistance of Sanskrit in his book The Mirror of Tamil and Sanskrit, noted:

   

“A stone inscription in Sanskrit found at Mahabalipuram reads that a king had constructed a temple for the cause of his deep devotion to God. Besides, another inscription provides a piece of information that a king built a shrine so that he would receive the blessings of his departed parents” added Nagaswamy, reciting the lines in Sanskrit.

The archeologist informed that the stone inscription on the construction of the Big Temple was first deciphered by E. Hultzsch, a German indologist and epigraphist in 1886.

“Had Hultzsch not done so, the people would not have known that the shrine was built by Raja Raja Chola” he said.

Listing the contributions made by the public to the construction of the shrine, Nagaswamy noted:

“Raja Raja Chola’s stone inscriptions provide the details of all the gifts made by the public accurately. Helping the king in building the shrine, the devout people of Thanjavur presented him gold, sardonix, emerald and pearl. And the king has recorded their details both in number and quantity. What’s surprising is that the monarch has recorded the value of gold in the ornaments, appraising it both by including and excluding its cotton strings”  

“The king got every detail of the gifts inscribed on stone, since he felt that the wealth donated by the devotees to the God was accounted clearly and the accounts should withstand the test of time”

Shankar Vanavarayar, Convener, INTACH, Coimbatore chapter, welcomed the gathering, Babaji Rajah Bhonsle, Senior prince and hereditary trustee of Thanjavur Big Temple, Vikram Sampath, Executive Director, Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts, South Zone and Ramachandra Prasad, Co-convener, INTACH, Coimbatore chapter, spoke in the function.

Link to my article in The New Indian Express:http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/3860138