Kaithala sevai and Nammalwar
mohini alangaram 7am thirunaal
We waited at the Thirumamani
mandapam from 3.30pm to have darshan of Namperumal. After about 4hours of
waiting we got treated to a sevai where Namperumnal dazzled as usual, in bright
parrot green with red and purple border rettai pett, which he enhanced with His
Rajaparvai, Rajanadai and Gambeeram. The Namperumal had on a Kasumalai and a
red padakam, He was simply dressed, the reason being He gives all His jewels to
Nammalwar to put on. As one lady explained it, all the worlds population is
considered as sthrees…..ladies and Namperumal is the only Purusha…man. So
Namperumal gives his jewels to his alwar ie..Nammalwar to wear, to don the Alamkaram of Parangusa
nayaki in the Nayaki bavam. A few years
back ,in the words of this lady ,
Namperumal didn’t wear any jewels at all on this day. He welcomes
Nammalwar into HIS fold grandly. And at around 7.15 the Archakas carry
Namperumal high up in their hands and show HIM all around. HE seems very
approachable, soulabyan, reachable, attainable when shown up like this.
Back home at 8.30 after a tiring
evening.
8am thirunaal Vedupari and Kopna vaiyyali
We present ourselves at the manal
veli maidanam , about twice the size of football ground opposite Ramar
sannidhi, and wait. After vettu (crackers) Namperumal arrives grandly on HIS huge gold horse. HE is dressed in his
riding costume, made of velvet, layers of different color velvet frocks,
holding the horse in one hand and a sattai in the other wearing a full sleeve
darkblue velvet shirt. HE has a cap made of velvet and pearls.
First the vaiyyali….HE covers the
entire stretch of maidanam a couple of times in HIS majestic walk and goes
back. Then to the crowd’s cheer the vayyali begins. HE moves in zigzag fashion,
the huge gold horse coming in sideways towards the crowd going away, coming in
at another end and going away. This excites the crowd further and they shout
Ranga Ranga…..HE covers the entire manalveli this way.
After this we wait for the
Vedupari.
A class of people called
‘MuthuRaja’ are given importance in this event. They are the kallars of
Srirangam who helped Thirumangai mannan rob .The story goes thus: Thieumangai mannan wanted to marry
Kumudhavalli, who claimed that she’d marry him if he could feed 1000 people
daily. To afford this tall claim Thirumangaimannan starts to steal and waylay
people.
The Lord in his munificence,
decides to take over now. ‘Thiruthi pani kolluthal’ is the way it is described.
The Perumal and HIS consort take
the disguise of bride and groom fully bejeweled and walk with their escorts in
the forest where they know Thirumangai mannan is waiting . Rightly Thirumangai
mannan waylays them and steals everything ,their jewels ,brides dowry, her
trousseau, everything. But Thirumangai mannan finds that The groom wears one piece of jewellery in his
toe that remains. Try as he might he is not able to take it off ,so he bites it
and at that moment the Lord decides to give him enlightenment. Enlightened the
Thirumangai Mannan sings in HIS praise and becomes Thirumangai Alwar. He sings
“Vadinen vadi varunthinen …….Narayana Ennum Naaman”
So this scene is enacted in the manalveli. The muthuraja, or the
community of the kallar people come in with
sticks and two young boys are dressed as perumal and Thayar and brought with
“sakala mariyadai”. First the Alwar comes in and goes around the Perumal twice
and goes back .he comes in again with a change of dress and goes very fast to perumal and takes away
His kodais(umbrellas), velli(silver) vilakku,
Boxes full of jewels, some covered trays and trunks. All these are
carried behind the alwar who goes away with his loot. He then later comes back
corrected and surrenders himself unto
the Lord.
The two little boys belonging to
the Muthuraja sect who impersonate Lord and thayar are then taken with koil
mariyadhai umbrellas and a melam along the chithrai veedhis to their residence
in melur road .
There are many CC TVs in the
temple placed at strategic points….The daily sevas are covered very well by a
local cable tv calld “Apple.”
The thirumamani mandapam is
decorated with Thazhamboo thoranam, vazzha marams and the whole stretch has a
shamiana get up decorated with white, green, red and pink cloth and it is
beautifully lit with yellow bulbs.
At 12 am on 31st Dec/
1st Jan there are around 100 devotees in the thirumamani mandapam,
and as usual 70% of this is women. The Namperumal is today dressed in Dark
bottle green with mustard border , simple clad in a kaasu malai, a fashionable
chain with a half moon shaped diamond pendant and his Kousthubam his
Abhayahastham is studded with rubies.
The arayars, 5 of them sing about
100 pasurams, the main abinaya pasuram being “Nedumar ku adimai” of Thirumangai
azhwar. The youngest arayar wears a broad border veshti and the usual thoppi,
and steps forward to do a small dance for God .The arayars sing and he does the
abinaya for it, very gracefully with no other accompaniment other than the
vocal support of arayars, he sings along too and often he gestures to the
Namperumal meaning HE did this and that. After this is done he steps back and
they continue their songs.
Today, New Year early hours, the
Nammalwar wears the same parrot green
veshti with red and purple border that Namperumal wore the previous night
alonghwith beautiful jewels.
The devotion
with which Namperumal is cherished has
to be seen to be believed, the local crowd has been standing here for more than
an hour after the arayar sevai waiting for the Haarathi and if possible
theertham. Typically only the men without upper cloth (bare bodied) get
theertham, sadari. We somehgow get a small helping of cooked rice (prasadam )
and happy that we started the year with Namperumal we head to the Karuvoolam to
have darshan of the famous veenai ekantham. We are surprised to see about 20 of
them already sitting there waiting….what can one say about Namperumal’s magic?
It is just past am and all these people
are wide awake, asking one another about the best place to see HIM go to HIS
ABODE. (padiyetram). Sitting on the steps we can see many sculptures standing
on the pillars in different sizes all with folded hands but all of them look
effeminate to me with a kondai to one side maybe indicating the Vijayanagar
influence? The tall pillars have lions seated on them overlooking the corridor.
Around 1.45 am
the Namperumal comes in with Single kottu and as we run to see him. We are
pleasantly surprised to see HIM all covered in a Sky Blue Salla Thuni which is
like a net cloth. HIS turban is
covered and so is HIS body all fully covered in this net cloth, looking
enchanting in spite of HIS entire day’s activities.
The 5 artistes
who play the veena walk in front of HIM facing HIM, holding their veena upright
on their shoulders held by a belt ,and they play it like a sitar . They sing few of Thirumangai Alwar’s
pasurams and play the veena along. First one pasuram in the Nazhikettan vassal,
then 1 just inside of it, then the next at the corner and two more at the padiyetham. That day’s thiruppavai
is played and sung to a different ragam. It is divine to hear a group of men
play veena and sing along to pindrop silence at 1.45 midnight then the
Padiyetham and Namperumal retires after a long day , and we bid HIM good night
and Au Revoir and ofcourse a good “vidiyal” for all of us.
What a way to usher in 2013…to
the accompaniment of Arayars singing the praises of Namperumal, with their hand
held bells, making a delightfully pleasant sound, and Namperumal looking as
endearing as ever in his elegant green.
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