Temple Festival of Kerala - Thekkniamma kavil Arattu (Vela/Pooram) - APRIL 2012

My Dad was asking us to attend Arrattu(Vela) at Thekkiniamma kavu temple, for people who don’t know about Vela, it’s an annual festival of Kerala celebrated at Thekkiniamma kavu- Bhagavathy temple near Lakkidi a small village in Palghat district.

Even though Lakkidi being my home town and the temple a integral part of our family I have never attended the festival and for some reason was also not keen to be there this time as I felt travel to Palghat during summer would just bring down my spirits.

But Dad convinced me to be part of the festival excerpts of which I share below

We reached on Friday the 6th of April 2012, my expectation of a Vela was something like the Thrissur pooram or more like the Mela in bollywood movies, to my displeasure the temple ground was completely empty with nothing but just a stage and few rods. I made sure my displeasure was well communicated.

Friday morning started with Para eduppu with the temple Velichapad visiting every home to bless the inhabitants with his traditional sword. Velichappadu, is considered as a mediator between the deity and the devotees. ‘Velichappadu’ literally means ‘the one who throws light on any problems.’ Possessed by the deity, Velichappadu dances in frenzy at the festivals in Bhagavati temples, and his dance is called thullal.

Our Velichappadu came home dancing to the accompanied drums in his traditional red clothes and carrying his sword. With dad already decorated the entrance and mom lighting the lamp, Velichappadu was welcomed to our home, the para (a Vessel) was filled with grains from the harvest by the gruhanathan and all of us adding our small contribution later the Velichappadu sent his blessings to us by placing the sword on our head. Even though I have seen this ritual many times in Chennai the feeling I got in Lakkidi was completely different.
This could have been because of the drum beats or the spirituality of Vellichappadu

The rest of Friday went event less until evening when we went to kaavu (bhagavathy temple), for the Kalamezhuthu.

The word Kalamezhuthu is a form powder drawing done with bare hands. The powder is spread on the floor in the desired pattern with bare hands, letting it in a thin stream between the thumb and the index finger. The powders are made out of naturally available material. There are of five colours, representing the five elements (Water, Air, Sky, Fire and Earth) called Panchabhootas, which constitute everything created. These materials are Rice (white), Charcoal of husk (black), Turmeric (yellow), a mixture of lime and turmeric (red) and green leaves of certain trees.

The figure drawn in our temple was of course Bhadrakali, in the fierce mode after killing Darikasura. The amazing speed at which the artist drew the figure stunned me, he was not referring to any picture but the perfection of the Devi was superb it was as if he was drawing someone from his heart. Once the drawing was complete he sang few songs in praise of the goddess, and destroyed the drawing and the kalam, then enters our Vellichappad who danced in front of the temple and in front of the disfigured drawing of the Devi.

That night I felt how can someone patiently draw such a beautiful painting of Goddess knowing that the he will disfigure the same after some time, it taught me a lesson nothing is permanent, and we need to understand, appreciate and accept it.

Saturday morning:

My mom told me that Poothan and Thirayum will be visiting every home in the village and are expected to come at 7am, I was thrilled now and the excitement of the festival slowly started entering my mind.

There are different version of Poothan and thira and the reason they visit homes, the one that touched me the most was the Edassery Govindan Nair’s Poothapattu.
The story is that once when poothan visited a house it saw a unni( child) and instantly felt motherly affection and took the child, the mother of the child could not control her sorrow and begged to the poothan to return her child. The poothan although felt sorry for the mother could not bear the separation from the child, so it put forths a condition that if the mother is ready to sacrifice her eyes the child will be returned to her, thinking that nobody will be able to sacrifice there eyes. So much was the love for her child that her mother took her eyes and gave to Poothan, which saddened the poothan who made a child with grass and gave to the mother. The mother instantly recognized and asked the poothan to give back her child as she full filled her promise and not cheat her now. The Poothan returned the mother her child and also being a part of Kaali with special powers returns the sight of the mother. Poothan asks the mother permission to visit the child once every year. The mother takes the child and leaves and the poothan realizes it does not know the house of the her unni (child), so she comes to every house on a specific day searching her Unni.

So children are a weakness and they come home to bless the children.

Saturday morning 7th April 2012, Poothan and thira came dancing to our home accompanied with drums at 5 in the morning, it seems the belief in Thekkini amma kavu is that their trip starts at our home and they go to every home later. Even though we have not been part of the vela for years the people have not changed the tradition, we came to know later that every year they visit the home for a few minutes and start off their journey.

This year of course was different. The visit at 5 made us all almost running from our rooms to the entrance with a veillakku (lamp) to welcome them

As part of the ritual they ask money, thira is to act as a decent person and Poothan is expected to keep on asking more even after getting money. When I first heard the people accompanying the troupe asking poothan to leave and she continued to ask for money, I was surprised and thought this a trick to get more money, but later felt bad on understanding that they are there as part of the ritual and asking for gifts/money is part of it.

Dressed heavily both poothan and thira looked complicated with their heavy dresses and more heavier masks. Their dance a mixture of joy, fun ,anger and their strength thrilled me.

The rest of the morning was eventful with panchavadiyum and bringing the Goddess outside the temple on the elephant.
I have never seen so much crowd in this temple, was it the music, was it the elephants or the sheer presence of the Devi that brought people from every where, whatever the reasons the joy and oneness felt truly amazing.

Our temple ground had just one shop of toys for kids and I had to stop by 

Afternoon the KalaVela (Bull Vela) and Kuthira Vela (Horse Vela) started with people bringing hand made Bull and Horse to every home and also carrying the traditional Koda, its seems ladies hold the koda and dance for the Bhagavathy and go to every home along with the bull and horse structures. This is a very good example how humans and animals lived together and respected each other in the good old days. Every day bulls get beaten in the fields and in the work places, but, for a change, this day is dedicated to them. You can only see this in the farming cultures where humans loved and cared their animals. This is something that we are loosing these days..

Then came nayadi, a hunter by origin, nayadi’s are know for their knowledge of herbs and cures for various diseases,
They arrive singing a song to let people of the house know that they have arrived, Our nayadi sang a song out of which all I could grasp was “etha shankaran naydi vannatunde” (Shanakaran nayadi has come)

The name of this nayaddi group comes from the word nayattu, meaning “hunting.”
The Nayadis spend their days searching for water and firewood, making ropes, and gathering herbs for sale. They are spiritually oppressed by their belief in the pantheon of Hindu gods. The Nayadis also worship “regional deities” such as Mallan, Malavarhy and Parakutty. They are known for their nattu vaidyam.. It seems one of the nayadi’s gave a new life to my uncle when he was a kid. Their treatment is unique, during earlier days when un-touch-ability was in its peak they are not allowed to touch the patient, they talk to the patient from a distance, analyze and provide the method to make medicines which is later given to the patient.

Shankaran Nayadi came home singing and started asking for clothes, we gave him money but he said he wants clothes, for which we politely declined telling we are just stopping by and we do not have any. He started making fun and asked us to change our clothes and give him what ever we were wearing as he liked them, later amma given him a dress which he happily took and said that he has come only to keep up their tradition of visiting houses and asking for clothes, it seems he comes every year visits 5-10 houses and returns back home. When asked he sang a nayattu and was mentioning that nobody asks for this now, they just give money. He was very happy to sing and blessed all of us and left.

The rest of the afternoon was eventless and finally clock stuck 5 and we were to go to the temple……

The temple grounds was covered with people and shops quite contrary to what I saw in the morning, it had at least 50 shops selling a variety of things from toys, dresses, flowers, slippers crockery to halwa, puffed rice and juices.

In one corner of the ground there was sringari melam, one side had the kala vela, there was kavaddi attam and couple of other troupes dancing and singing. It seems all of them come to temple dancing perform before the goddess and retire for the evening.

This started with Poothan and Thirayum and continued with karim bootham, nayadi pattu, kala pooram, kavidi attam, velichapaddu thullal and finally anapooram.

Aanapooram had 9 majestic elephants decorated with netti pattam and koda and panchavadhiyum to tap legs.

It seems the same troupe will come back in the night again and perform once more after the kalam ezhuthu.

The day’s events took me to different period and made me think of our forefather’s era, whatever that was performed here would have the best attempt to recreate that magic, but my heart started wondering and yearning to know more about the actual magic, which I know for sure is left to my imagination.

We could not wait for the events of night or next day as we had to get back to Bangalore, but I returned with memories forever and thanking my Dad for convincing me to be part of this