The Mages of Malabar
Kerala, lore’s own country. According to popular myth, it was born from the sea at the fling of Parasuram’s axe—a land of emerald paddy fields and meditative coconut groves watered by ancient rivers and guarded by the sea and mountains. Beneath its infinite tides swim countless secrets. Most esoteric is the millennia-old shamanic tradition of the namboodiri mantravadis—wizards and warlocks approached by thousands of people with afflictions of the mind, body and spirit.
of the Suryakaladi family temple of Ganapathy
Their clans are Kattumadam, Kallur, Suryakaladi, Kaalakaat, Kavanad and Kakkad who attribute their vocation to Parasuram. Documentary evidence places them at the centre of Kerala’s healing traditions that combine indigenous ayurveda, Dravidian astrology and spellcraft. Their magical provenance belongs to antiquity: the illustrious Kattumadam family is mentioned in the now-unavailable 7th-century book, Vanaprasadam, which suggests they practised mantravadam—Kerala’s occult science—more than 2,000 years ago.
Similarly the Kaalakaat family is thousands of years old: Sandip Namboodiri says his ancestor is mentioned in Keralamahatmyam, the oldest record of the region’s history and a part of the Bhugola Purana. Kallur mana is over 1,500 years old. Kavanad is now hyphenated as Amalloor-Kavanad: centuries ago, its heirless head had to adopt a boy from the Amalloor thantri family and combine forces.
Kakkad’s traditions could soon be extinct since its present karanavar (patriarch) is a childless bachelor—the father must initiate his son in the recondite traditions and rituals of his family for the mantravadi’s line to continue.The mantravadi who resides at the moolasthanam—the house where the family’s main deity is consecrated—is acknowledged the clan’s head.
Decoding the magic
All mantravadis will tell you that their key duty is Upasana, worship of a wizard’s personal deity, which Adi Shankaracharya describes as the meditative process used by a sadhak (occult practitioner) to be “one with god” to “be a god”, and therefore “being a god, he attains the god”. The functional vocabulary of mantravadam mainly consists of badha (possession), pretam (spirit) and rekshes (demon). Badha is purportedly removed through avahanam ( forcing the paranormal entity to manifest itself) followed by uchadanam (expulsion).
“A sadhak uses upasana to remove obstacles in his way. Mantravadam is similar, but is used to help others,” clarifies Kaalakaat Sandip Namboodiri. He attributes a rare prescience to the denizens of the netherworld, adding that spirits can intuit whom to possess, due to their skill in identifying which victims will be their conduits to attaining divine grace through uchadanam. Kallur Krishnan Namboodiripad adds that “the mantravadi removes the agony of the pretam, whether it attains moksha or not”.
How is uchadanam done? Sandip Namboodiri elaborates: “All spirits fall under three categories: satvik, rajasik and tamasic. Irrespective of its religion, a mantravadi will identify the category and exorcise it.” Poltergeists disturbing the peace are widely reported in the regional press. “They mostly harass families who have stopped worshipping their clan’s deities or new people who have moved into an old house. These angry gods want to be restored to their rightful place,” explains Narayanan Namboodiripad, Sandip’s uncle.
Since time began, man has been intrigued by the mysteries of light and the terrors of the dark. In literature and cinema, from Dracula to A Nightmare on Elm Street, flesh-eating monsters, evil witches, malevolent ghosts and creepy sorcerers influence pop culture.
“What you see on TV has no resemblance to reality. We don’t indulge in exhibitionism,” Kallur Krishnan Namboodiripad denies the popular trope. How do you even prove ghosts and demons exist? “Just like there are sounds with ranges that aren’t audible to humans, there are entities which exist in dimensions invisible to humans,” explains Sandip Namboodiri.
Kerala’s shamans deny practising black magic. Krishnan Namboodiripad, who looks every inch the wizard with his intense eyes, thick black beard and deep voice, explains the procedure, “For example, when a sorcerer who worships Karinkali (Black Kali, a local goddess) is approached by a person to destroy an enemy, he does the necessary ceremonies and dispatches her to torment the target. Black magic is easier because its focus is hate and it’s direct; unlike love, which has many dimensions.”
The sorcerer’s realm is terrifying: he describes a scary local practice named thailaprayogam using four types of oil infused with dark spells. “Even if one oil freezes in winter and another heats up in summer, three will remain active round the clock causing the victim endless agony. This type of magic is difficult to counter,” admits Krishnan Namboodiripad.
All mantravadis claim potential demonic backlash; they depend on their upasanamurthy—the main deity they worship— for protection. Kattumadam Eshanan Namboodiripad affirms that it takes divine backing to be a mantravadi.
“We’ve the confidence that our devatas will back us, otherwise we can’t assure anyone that their problem will be solved,” he laughs self-deprecatingly. Suryan Subrahmanian Bhattathirippad, the karanavar of the Suryakaladi mana, admits that thaumaturgy is a dangerous path. Then why adopt it? “It is my destiny,” he answers simply. He prefers to call mantravadam ‘mantra sastra’—the science of spells.
“A mantra is a vibration,” he explains, sharp eyes shining in a patrician face that unexpectedly breaks into an impish smile while emphasising a point. “It works when you translate vibrations into strings of words. Think of tuning forks that transmit sound.” Bhattathirippad compares the process to the body’s cellular functions. “Our mind exists inside every living cell. Cancer occurs when some cells revolt and grow uncontrollably. Mantravadam cures by synchronising cellular energies. The eternal battle between gods and demons is waged in our bodies.” Krishnan Namboodiripad uses the scientific metaphor of the mind as a battery that must be charged with positive energy through constant upasana.
Sandip Namboodiri explains, “A mantra is the verbal form of power and mantravadam is its application.”The cure for badha lies in a close linkage of ayurveda, astrology and mantravadam—an accepted diagnostic method in Kerala. The physician determines the disease, the astrologer divines the cause, and the shaman joins forces to address the root cause. This indigenous triad is unique to the region, and offers a variety of healing protocols. After a cure has been effected, the mantravadi could recommend a talisman (yantra) for further protection and suggest ayurvedic medicines. The Kallur clan is known for treating psychological ailments and had a psychiatric hospital for inpatients on the premises until 1975.
house in Irinjalakuda, Thrissur
A local legacy
All the shamans have a large assemblage of deities in their home temples. These could be Vedic gods, local deities or a combination of both. The mantravadis also worship demigods whose identities are secret. Scholar and author M Gangadhara Menon has pointed out that ancient Keralans followed Dravidian magical traditions and honoured animistic gods and nature spirits, like all ancient civilisations. William Logan, the erstwhile British collector of Malabar, ventured that in 8 AD, Vedic Brahmins came via sea to Malabar from Tulu country to the North.
Kattumadam Narayanan Namboodiripad, legendary sorcerer, ex-Communist and former karanavar of the clan until his death in 2005, wrote that his forebears were from South Canara like Kallur’s; Sandip Namboodiri has Tamil ancestry. The former noted in his book Manthravadam Keralathil (Magic in Kerala): “Manthravadam originated from the aboriginals… Names like Chathan, Chundalayandi, Chamundi, Neeli etc. are prevalent in the worship of Nayadi tribals. The astrologers Sanskritised the tribal deity Pillamarutha into Balapradshkini, Ummamachattan into Unmadha Bhairavan, and Chooramarutha into Raktha Rakshas.”
Narayanan’s son Anil Namboodiripad had mentioned in an interview, “My family title is Thirumuzhikkulathu Changaran Kandan. It seems there is a connection between my family and tribal communities because the name ‘Changaran Kandan’ is not very common in the Brahmin community.” Narayanan had pointed out that the name Kaalakaat and Kattumadam carry “a link between kadu (forest) and kadar (tribals). Two of Kattumadam deities are Kuttichathan and Muthassiyamma, an ancient tribal form of Kali.
Temple truths
Kerala’s prevalent shamanic tradition has two streams: mantravadam and thantram. There is no thantram without mantram, but the reverse isn’t always true. Krishnan Namboodiripad describes the difference succinctly: a thantri can’t be confused with a North Indian tantric. “Thantra concerns the construction and mystical maintenance of temples and the thantri is the practitioner. Mantravadam brings relief to people with problems,” he says. Part of the mandate of the wizard clans (Eshanan Namboodiripad says originally there were eight) is thantra: designing temples and ensuring their divine integrity.
Kerala’s thantris come from one of the 26 designated namboodiri families. “Once a temple has been constructed specifically on a thantri’s instructions, he invokes the deity and infuses the idol with divine aura, thereby becoming the ‘father of the deity’,” describes Suryan Jayasuryan Bhattathirippad of Suryakaladi mana. The process mostly takes about 10 days and visualises the god’s birth, limb by limb, organ by organ. He opens a Pandora’s Box of demonology about ghosts and demons haunting even temples: a confederacy of lost shadows waiting for redemption.
Says Eshanan Namboodiripad: “When people who were closely associated with a specific deity meet a disastrous death, their spirits will hover around its temple. They will also make their presence felt.”
How? “Through omens,” clarifies Malur Unni Namboodiripad, vastu and astrology professional who restores ruined temples and builds new ones. Accidents, the idol’s ceremonial dress suddenly catching fire, naivedyam becoming polluted or a devotee’s untimely death on the scene are warnings. Unni believes that deities, too, experience misery.
“Gods have exactly the same tribulations as human beings. Mantravadam is the only solution to remove malefic planetary effects on deities,” he says. Subrahmanian Bhattathirippad interprets the equation poetically. “Man is the microcosm and the universe is the macrocosm. In the middle plane is the temple.”
For over a thousand years, thantris of the chosen clans have been responsible for the ritualistic integrity of more than 2,000 temples in Kerala—Kattumadam alone curates over 300 temples housing both pan-Indian deities like Shiva and Krishna, and indigenous gods like Pallikunnu Bhagavathi and Madayi Kavu Bhagavathi. Krishnan Namboodiripad clarifies the difference between the two streams: “In mantravadam, the mind is what matters. It requires immense concentration and mental acumen to be a wizard. In kshetra thantra (temple science), knowledge of procedure is critical.”
Krishnan Namboodiripad explains that “prayers aren’t answered often because Hindus don’t know how to pray; nobody has taught them, unlike Christian priests who instruct devotees to read specific sections of the Bible during sermons. A Hindu might pray for his car to sell at a profit so that he can upgrade to a Mercedes. The gods don’t have the time to decode such calculations”. He argues that focused petitions are crucial to the efficacy of prayer, and the mantravadi, by acting as an intermediary between the deity and the supplicant, ensures satisfaction.
The shamans see fright as a common symptom of supernatural maladies. “The mantravadi must get to the root of the problem to diagnose whether it’s a badha or a psychological issue. If a blade nicks your finger, it’ll bleed; mantravadam can’t heal the wound. But the blade must be discarded. Metaphorically speaking, mantravadam can only remove the pain’s source,” Krishnan Namboodiripad elaborates, adding that not all those in distress who approach him are victims of badha; some suffer from clinical psychological disorders. “When a distraught mother comes to me saying her child is terrified by something and can’t sleep,
I give her a knotted thread infused with a mantra and the child sleeps peacefully. The kid doesn’t know what mantravadam is. Magic isn’t about showing off, but about getting results,” he affirms. Kallur mana’s occult philosophy observes that humans have 10 astral forms. When a person dies, nine of them merge with the universe while the 10th, named dhananjayan, remains on earth, haunting its owner’s favourite places and lingering near his or her loved ones. A common presence in spirit lore is the Brahmarekshes, a fierce but wise Brahmin demon who is blamed for causing many diseases.
Masters and miracles
The chiefs of both Kallur and Suryakaladi clans reflect the modern shamanic sensibility: firmly rooted in tradition, yet versatile enough to address present concerns.
Bhattathirippad is an unconventional reformer; all sections can participate in his mana’s Vinayaka Chaturthi celebrations—in Kerala’s feudal age, other castes had to stand four to 24 feet away from a Brahmin. An eclectic personality, he is also an able exponent of tantric painting.
Every year, he leads a pilgrimage to the Himalayas to bring holy water to purify 44 rivers in Kerala.
His Ganapathy Homam is unconventional, performed only after sunrise because of the eponymous clan’s devotion to Surya, who is the sacred lamp of the ritual and is worshipped in a female form. “The family follows Sri Vidya Tantra, the worship of Sri Devi as Tripurasundari. Suryakaladi integrated the sun into the form of the Devi,” spells out spiritual practitioner and mantravadam scholar Sreejith Vellu Mathom, who is working to create a magical synod. “Moreover the sun’s power is Gayatri,” he adds.
The histories of the shamanic clans live in the mist of bygone millennia with fabled beginnings. The legend of Kallur mana begins with an ancestor praying to Shiva at the Vadakkunnathan Temple in Thrissur and receiving a book of spells from the god. The deity of Kaalakaat mana, Karinkuttichathan, was Shiva and Parvati’s son, who was adopted by Kaalakaat’s childless karanavar; a dark-skinned child who grew up to be a ferocious creature and tormented people.
The furious namboodiri ordered him to be chopped into little pieces. Each piece became mini chathans, or kuttichathans; they are worshipped across the state by people of all faiths. It is said that the ancestor of Kaalakaat received one crore spell from the goddess and rode a tiger. The mana, which stands amid the atmospheric Tulu landscape, is a venerable building skirted by paddy fields and blessed by great, ageless trees. The grandfather of the present mantravadi is reputed to have ordered Kuttichathan to pluck and throw down tender coconuts for visitors to drink the nectar.
Both miracles and retribution abound in the history of Kerala’s wizard clans—a city was charred by the gods to avenge an insult to a Kaalakaat ancestor; a boat became immobile mid-river because of a slight to the wizard; a goat sweated blood auguring the death of an enemy. All the namboodiris are trained from childhood in the rituals specific to their clan.
“You can’t choose to become a mantravadi. Mantravadam chooses you,” reveals Krishnan Namboodiripad. Are there specialists among them? “At Kaalakaat , psychological disorders are treated while at Suryakaladi, physical ailments get prominence,” says Sreejith.
Does a mantravadi ever stop being one? “Mantravadis follow both alpavidya and srividya simultaneously. The former concerns deities which can’t grant salvation. After a while, mantravadis stick exclusively to srividya to attain moksha,” Sandip Namboodiri explains.
With different rituals but a common goal, can the clans be brought together on a single platform? Sreejith has embarked on an ambitious plan. If his dream comes true, Kerala will witness a confluence of magical learning, which has thrived individually for millennia. The fire in the homkund at Suryakaladi mana has been burning for centuries without a break. The fire that the mantravadis of Malabar lit at Kaalakaat (see box) promises to burn forever.