Krishnar Paadam and Seeveli on Sri Jayanthi

Today is Sri Jayanti. The atmosphere at all Lord Krishna temples would be celebratory  today night and most households will be decorated with festoons and kolams(rangoli)  and  for bhog, lot of crispy snacks like murukku, thattai and seedai will be made in households apart from Sri Krishna's favorite Avul( parched rice flakes) and fresh butter.

Many will decorate their homes with footprints of Sri Krishna leading to the altar from the main door. There is a legend behind this 'Foot legend' after all Indian mythology is all about myths and legends.

                                          'Krishnar paadam' at home

The legend goes thus, Since Sri Krishna is a 'Maakan chor' ( steals Butter) from the matkas hanging in the ceiling. Many a times he spills it while stealing. When he stealthily walks out, he places his feet on the spilt butter blob and so the whole house has his butter soaked foot prints. Symbolically representing this, feet patterns are drawn in most homes.  

Everyone has their own way of praying or connecting with god. I too have my own way. I am not very religious, pious or ritualistic when it comes to connecting with god. I don't find it mandatory to visit temples on auspicious days when it is overcrowded, neither do i get up early in the morning and chant shlokas loudly.  I don't offer hefty donations or contribute generously to temples.  But i do have faith and connect with god to feel at peace.  I pray to him whenever and wherever it pleases me like during travel or from bed or during my walk etc. It is a general  "Let everyone be happy and healthy" type of prayer or sometimes i switch on 'Vishnusahasranamam' on my ipod during walks. At times, when i am unable to take a decision, i  do seek his help and my faith in him gets stronger.  When i go through trying times, I say to myself  'Shhh.... god is working on my problem" and leave it to god, time and faith to take care of my problem. Such is my connection with god.

I do light diyas and incense, place flowers at the altar that is because i like the ambience and vibes it creates. I also visit temples when i feel like  to absorb the cosmic vibes. I believe,  idols in temples are supposed to have esoteric power due to the continuous chants  and temples are built according to agamic principles which absorb the geo-magnetic and cosmic waves. That said, i don't sense the vibes at all temples but there are  a few ancient  temples, where i have felt the mystical vibrations. Though all temples are god's abode there are a few where you feel the calm and peace.  The older the better.

One of them is the Guruvayoor temple in Kerala dedicated to Lord Krishna.

It was late in the evening when i first visited this temple. To be precise, on the eve of christmas in 2009. We drove from Kalady( Adi sankara's birth place) straight to Guruvayoor. We freshened up quickly so that we had to be on time before the temple closes for the day. Fortunately for us there was no long temple queue and the devotees were few in number( though it was holiday season).

As we entered the temple, we found it was the seeveli time.The nearly 1000 lights around in the vilakkumadam( wooden framed structure designed into small squares with each square holding a lit diya) were lit.  Seeveli is the procession of caparisoned elephants in the inner praharam(corridor) around the temple. Lord Krishna is carried on one of the elephants and the remaining elephants follow to the beat of the drums, cymbals , pipes and other percussion instruments. There is a rhythm in the beat. The tempo is slow initially and then reaches a crescendo.

                                                           The seeveli

                                            The lighted vilakkumadam

The beat of the drums, cymbals, the lighted vilakkumadam, the caparisoned elephants all transport you to an unexplainable divine world. Despite the rhythmic beating and sound, there is a sense of peace and calm that  has to be experienced to be believed.   

Seeveli is an occassional feature in most kerala temples. But at Guruvayoor it is a daily feature.

Kadlekayi Parishe - When bean town goes nuts

  At any traditional Indian  wedding, the groom and the bride would be busy with the rituals. For people around them   it would be a gala time.  Especially when you have a close set of cousins and fun loving aunts and uncles with whom we share great camaraderie, then these weddings are fun fests where we  relive and make lot of  memories.  That too  my paternal side  of uncles and aunts know not what generation gap is.  My  cousins, aunts and uncles along with my younger sis & parents would be having a gala time today in Bangalore.  My cousin brother is getting married today & We could’nt mark our  presence  as scheduled because we had to prioritize our daughter's exam.  Like me many cousins who stay far away  are also missing this event.

During my course of telecon with my cousin on Saturday, she said they were all planning to go to the “ Kadlekai parishe” after the temple wedding .

“Kadlekai parishe"?  Oh!   I almost forgot about this event that  happened in Bangalore  until she mentioned and as usual the nostalgic person in me traveled back in time.

 Well, I decided I will virtually travel to  the fair while they would be present physically and there it goes..... all about it..... The  Kadlekai parishe  -  a 2 day fair  when  bean town* Bangalore goes nuts.  Kadlekai is ground nut in kannada and parishe is fair and so this is a fair for groundnuts.  This fair that happens on the last Monday of the Hindu month  of Karthik  and this is unique to  Bangalore.

  Much before TV,  Malls, themeparks, resorts ,technology, deadlines and gadgets ruled us,   fairs like these were outings for us.  And this Kadlekai parishe despite the malls, themeparks, and resorts  continues its celebration in Bangalore.

 Every festival has a legend behind it and this fest too has a legend. Before Bengaluru metamorphised into a world class silicon city, this city was divided into  areas like Guttahalli, Mavalli, Dasarahalli, hosahalli, sunkenahalli etc.,( halli in kannada means village).  These areas had lots of groundnut farms around it.  Every full moon day  many  bulls(Nandi) would charge into the groundnut fields around sunkenahalli  and destroy the crops. The farmers who incurred losses then made a plea to Nandi( vehicle of Lord Shiva) to stop this and pledged to offer their first crop of their harvest to the god.  Meanwhile an enraged farmer is said to have killed a bull. Subsequently an idol of Basava ( bull or nandi in kannada) is supposed to have been found close by and this idol was growing rapidly. The farmers nailed an iron peg like trishul  on the idol to stop its growth , which is still visible when you visit this temple today at Basavanagudi, Bangalore. Later, A temple was built around this by the founder of Bangalore, Kempegowda. This temple is one of the oldest temples  and thus this fair is said to be five centuries old and the suburb  came to be known as Basavanagudi. ( Basava is bull and gudi is temple). Today this ancient temple is one of the tourist attraction of Bangalore and this suburb is one of the oldest suburbs.

The huge nandi( bull ) and the trident on the top of the statue   which was hit on the head to stop the growth of the bull idol 

                                                The nut fair along the street pavement

                            

 The fair at night 

To this day, many farmers still keep up the word and the farmers of surrounding towns and villages come with their  harvest to sell the different types of groundnuts.

During this fair, the  Bull temple road, the road named after the temple  is blocked for vehicular traffic and the farmers sell their groundnut harvests on either sides of the roads. The nuts are spiced, salted, fried, roasted, boiled, sugar coated etc.,.  There are also many things that you see  like in any Indian fair along the pavements  like merry go round, play things, cotton candies, toys like flutes, bugles, astrologers with parrots, puffed rice, colorful sugar candies, kitchen items, fancy articles,  and decorative items like terracotta products etc. I remember buying a mud piggy bank here when I was a child.

I have visited this fair in  my childhood and  later during my teen years. My college was close to this place and the bugle rock park behind  the temple was  our favorite hangout for us friends.  One of the other stories that I have heard during these times was that the nut shells  which would be strewn after the fair would be no where around the place the next day. The myth is that the Nandi clears the nutshells.  There is no historical evidence for such stories, but these stories fascinated us and we grew up with such stories.

My paternal cousins are going to relive the memories and today evening may be I will hear more stories  from them.

For us Indians, celebrations never end and we keep celebrating nature, food, land, gods, city etc. In today’s seamless world,  regional fests or fairs like these are what distinguishes one city from another. Don't you think? 

* Bangalore is the colonial name for Benda kalu ooru- meaning the city of boiled beans)

Image courtesy: Google

A tiny dose of culture, a little temple,a short travel tale and a mini collection.

We were driving past the old Begumpet airport in Hyderabad. This is one of the busiest roads in Hyderabad where we have bumper to bumper traffic during peak hours and racing cars at other times but busy anytime of the day. When our car was idling in the traffic, a hoarding  caught my attention near lifestyle store.

The advertisement issued in public interest  by greater Hyderabad traffic police was aimed at motorists to wear helmets. It   had  Lord  ganesha holding an helmet and warning as below.

                                 (the above photo is from a social network)

I found the advertisement very educative, innovative and it also brought a smile on my face seeing Ganeshji standing beside a bike with a helmet in the hand. I suddenly, recalled I visited a place in the Thanjavur region long back, where I visited a unique Ganesh ji temple in the Thanjavur region of Tamilnadu. Thought of sharing this journey here.

One of my favorite travel routes is the Thanjavur – trichy belt in Southern Tamilnadu. This district is unique for its agricultural activities since it lies in the deltaic region of the famous River Cauvery. The numerous criss crossed canals and the rivers  tributaries which meander around the little villages having emerald green fields(during winter) is a sight to behold. These rivers which irrigate the fertile land give rise to many agricultural lands and so the traditional occupation here is agriculture. These lands yield bountiful crops giving this place the  name “ Granary  of south india”. This place was the cradle of tamil culture , literature and civilization and many rare historical books in the ancient Saraswathi Mahal library in Thanjavur further authenticate this fact.  Despite many invasions and other political turmoils the art, architecture and culture has not suffered much destruction. The people of the Cauvery basin region like Trichy, Thanjavur   are supposed to be connoisseurs of art, craft, literature, cuisine and even communication(talking smartly) etc.,All these are attributed to the waterr of river Cauvery. Most of the development in this region is owed to the Chola kings. Chola bronze art today fetches a huge value in the international market.

Do you get the drift, Why am I describing this region and praising the people so much? 

Hehehehe....yes, me by origins both from paternal, maternal and marital side belong to this place . Originally my ancestors belong to this region.

So ,this is one of my favorite travel routes. I  have’n t visited these places much  in my childhood except for a few occasional visits to my aunts place. So,  we love connecting our children to these places, whenever opportunity arises. And these opportunities arise often since my husband’s uncle place(Neyveli) and his grandparents place(Lalgudi) are close to this region. Most areas in this region is rich in ancient history and so it becomes a historical tour for my children and they easily connect to it. The river banks are also  home to many temple village. These temples are ancient and some predate to thousands of years like the Brihadeeswarar temple. ( World heritage site). You don't have to be religious to visit these ancient temples. But do visit one of them anywhere and you will feel the   powerful mystical cosmic  power. The idols in ancient temple built according to agama shastra are said to have esoteric power due to lot of chantings  than the newly constructed designer temples.

 Travelling through these villages in a car  is very difficult  since most of these are narrow,dusty and muddy roads, but you will discover the fun of a peaceful and tranquil rural life from every small daily happening of the locals . A real treat for  urban souls like us used to the glistening malls, bumper to bumper traffic and  living in concrete jungle drenched with neon lights.

 You have to take a sturdy amby or sumo for these roads which are called “otthai adi padhai” in tamil meaning one way lanes.  We had   real fun once when we navigated through these muddy  roads .The villagers scatter their harvested paddy  bounties so that the cars pass through the paddy and gets threshed.  We visited  many places each of which is rich in ancient history and deserves a post from me.  Not all villages are so backward, in fact when I passed through a village called Mudikondan I found people in agraharams( quarter around the temple)  speaking in impeccable english  although wearing the typical tamil costume of madisar sari(draped like the maharashtrian navsari) and the dhoti clad men. Most of who are retired judges and have held senior positions have made their native as the base for retirement our uncle told.

During one of our visits, we  passively helped the local villagers by threshing those paddy harvest by driving past those and after  manoevuring those roads fit for rally drivers we reached a place called Thilatharpana puri.

As the name suggests in Sanskrit 'Til' is gingelly, tharpana is the hindu ritual of offering respects to the departed souls and puri is city. Lord Rama is supposed to have offered respects to his father and hence this place is called Thilatharpana puri. The native story goes that Lord Ram offered his respects to his departed father here. Lord Dasharatha is supposed to have attained salvation(mukti) because of this. Hence, the main deity in the temple of Thilatharpana puri is called Muktheeswarar and his consort is called Sornavalli. It was a sleepy temple with not much activity around but every stone and wall had the stamp of antiquity.  When we came out of the temple precints,  we found a small temple dedicated to the scribe of Mahabharatha – Ganeshji. I would have overlooked him, if not for the name  Aadi(first in tamil) vinayagar written  in Tamil.

Immediately, we called a local to ascertain if it was ganeshji and why he had a human face.  The locals told it was the idol of Lord Ganesha in the human form much before he got his replacement of the elephant head. Also, called Nara Ganapathi. Not many people are aware of this temple and until we reached here neither were we aware of this temple.  Nothing much is known either about this temple.Wish historians like William Dalrymple travelled this route to find the hidden history here.Sometimes i feel foreigners are the ones who are more interested in our history and tell us how rich and glorious our past is. 

                                             (Photo courtesy: Google image)

There are very few temples with Ganeshji having a human face. This is one of the them.  There are many beautiful and ancient temples around here. Till then, I was used to seeing Ganesha in traditonal form and sometimes as a sports man, musician and other avatars with his elephantine head . For the first time, I got to see the Lord with a human face.Many of you know the story how he got his elephant head, for those who don't know. You can read it here.

 I love collecting his idols  and among my many unique ones are where he is the scribe of mahabharatha in  Sage Vyasa's hermitage, a traditional standing ganesha ,a ganesha walking under an umbrella and another 1/2 cm coral Ganesha and a wooden Ganesha festoon.

The middle shelf has a kondapalli creation ganesha as a scribe and the papier mache walking ganeshji with an umbrella is outside.

 I'm looking for a pretty big reclining ganesha in papier mache now to adorn my beauty wall between my drawing and dining hall. Something like the one you see below.

The above one which awaits polishing is a redsanders Ganeshji costing 60,000INR at shilparamam. My search is on for a economical one in papier mache. Hope to pick it up at any crafts village soon.

My other posts on Ganeshji are here and here.