KOCHI: His family is planning to celebrate his 90th birthday but Seetharaman Embranthiri of Chelakkamadhom is as full of activity as ever before, his day beginning at 3 am. After serving the goddess for nearly six decades as the main priest of Chottanikkara Devi Temple, he has retired but not to a life of rest and relaxation. Busy caring for his cows the priest says his passion for cattle rearing dates back to his childhood.
“Our ancestors considered it holy work as the cow is believed to be the mother of the entire world. For me cattle rearing is similar to worshipping Chottanikkara Amma,” he says.
The family had only one cow so Embranthiri bought four more and expanded his dairy farm after his retirement. After thevaram (worshipping the family deity Chottanikkara Amma) in the pooja room he reads Devi Bhagavatham and then it is time to be with the cows. Even the cattle shed has a story. “It was the first house built by my father in the nineteenth century. When I built a new house my father asked me not to demolish the old one as it had brought prosperity to us. So when the family shifted to the new house, the old one was converted into a home for the cattle.” Embranthiri, a voracious reader of Sanskrit texts, spends the rest of the day with his books. “My granddaughter Hema helps me to select a special title each day like Soundarya Lahari, Mahabharatham and so on,” he says. Though he completed only preliminary education Embranthiri learnt Sanskrit from the Samskritha Padashala established by the Maharaja of Kochi at Chottanikkara. “I joined the Padhashala when it was shifted to Tripunithura and I could complete the basics of Sanskrit which helped me a lot in rendering the hymns to worship Chottanikkara Amma,” says Embranthiri who learnt Sanskrit under the guidance of the great Vedic scholar Ramappa Thanthri who had served the Kochi Maharaja as the priest of the royal temple in Tripunithura.
Embranthiri has three sons and three daughters and all his sons have opted for priesthood
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