Dog, toddy, dry fish…hotels that sell chicken biryani and egg puffs…wall posters and cutouts of the CPI(M)’s Lok Sabha candidate…. All these drum up the atmospherics at north Malabar’s Muthappan Temple, and you may wonder whether you are really standing in front of a Hindu shrine. But you are. Not just that, at Parassinikadavu off Kannur, you are standing before a temple where everybody is welcome irrespective of caste and creed.
As you enter the temple, you will be greeted with tea and payaru (boiled green dal) with grated coconut. “Tens of thousands of cups of tea are being served every day between 7.30 am to 8 pm. Whoever comes here, we give this as the prasadam,” says K P Ratheesh, member of the DYFI Kannur unit, handing over a cup to me. I quickly finish my tea, as I don’t want to miss the scenes of vibrancy here.
Drinking toddy is no taboo here. About nine litres of toddy is being offered to Muthappan, the deity in the temple who is believed to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Well, toddy is not considered liquor here. As I walk towards the nearby toddy shop, I run into Kanakan, a 40-year-old man, whose job includes bringing toddy to the temple for the daily offering. “Toddy is Muthappan’s prasadam. So there is no problem drinking it. If you want to taste good toddy, please go ahead. Since it is run by the (Toddy Tappers’ Cooperative) Society, don’t worry about the quality. But the stock will get over fast,” says Kanakan, holding a pot of toddy on his right shoulder.
“1 litre: Rs 36”, reads a black board at the cash counter. You have to pay the money in advance. Once you settle down, a variety of food items, including dry fish curry, fish fry, appam, crab, prawn and beef will come to you in a huge plate. You can choose from them. The toddy shop has posters and banners of K K Ragesh, the CPI(M) candidate who is contesting the parliamentary polls. Ironically, I haven’t even seen any other party candidates’ poster in the Parassinikadavu area, except the one of UDF candidate K Sudhakaran on top of a tree by the Valapattinam River nearby.
Kanakan is right, it is hardly 11 pm and the toddy is out of stock. “If you want more, you have to go to the one at the end of the Valapattinam bridge,” says Sajeevan, a devotee from Kozhikode. Outside the toddy shop, a group of DYFI workers are busy preparing poster banners for the election. “This is a temple which believes in secularism. Muthappan is a rebel, a revolutionary. In that sense he is a Communist God,” says Arun, branch secretary of the CPI(M). “Around 90 per cent of the temple committee members are Communists. There are CITU and DYFI workers. A number of communist leader, including EMS (Namboodiripad) and AKG (A K Gopalan) used to hide here when they were fighting the atrocities against the feudal set-up,” he adds. Rajeevan is a senior toddy tapper, but he is also the branch general secretary of the CPM. “Here, toddy attains a new meaning. It purifies the human soul,” says Rajeevan. Lunch is a brief but sumptuous affair in many ways. The hall has a 2-foot high bench to sit. It will begin with palpayasam on plantain leaves. Rice will be served followed by sambar and morcurry. “The people who belong to different caste and religion come and share food under one roof. Everybody is treated as one,” says Rajeevan.
A look at the hoarding that shows the rate of offerings will startle you. The most expensive offering called Thiruvappana costs only Rs 13.25 paise. For anyone who knows how much it costs even obscure temples for a choroonu (feeding of rice) for the newborn, this will be a revelation: here it costs a mere 75 paise. “We don’t want to change the rate because Muthappan won’t like it,” says Janardhanan, a member at the temple administration committee. “Our trustee (called madayan who is the chief) is Mukundan Madayan who is 80 years old. He is the one who decides everything about the temple. We provide free tea, food and accommodation for everyone who comes here, and that’s special about it,” he adds.
Aji is just married, and I meet this gentleman inside another toddy shop at the end of the Valapattinam bridge. “I work in Bahrain, I am on leave now. It has been only two months that I got married. My worry is I have to go back, and that without my wife. I don’t believe in Communism but I believe in Muthappan. He will find a solution,” he hopes.
Back at the temple, I bump into Ajith Kumar, a schoolteacher from Manjeri in neighbouring Malappuram district. He has a valid reason for coming here repeatedly: “It is like coming to a family. What else you need?” he asks. As I come out of the temple, I see a couple of dogs roaming. An old man tries to feed a dog, but he doesn’t oblige. Chimes in Sukhdev, another devotee: “The dog is worshipped here as a companion of Muthappan while hunting. They get the best treatment here.”
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