When people in other parts of India ask my suggestion on which season to travel to Kerala, I always suggest the months of March and April; that is, if they can withstand the sultry heat in the state during this period. For a cultural tourist who wants to know the pulse of Kerala, this is really the season to travel, especially to the Northern regions. This is the period when Keralites celebrate their gods, or rather, goddesses. The worship of the goddess Kali or her numerous manifestations in Kerala is initiated in the months of Kumbham and Meenam in the Malayalam calendar. These worshipping systems vary in different regions; in north Malabar, she is propitiated as Bhagavati and Chamundi through Theyyam performances, in South Malabar it will be through Tiras and in central Kerala through Puram festivals and Talappolis. In south Kerala, her valiant feats are expounded through Padayani performances and Thottampaattus and Villupaattus. During these months, the victory over the demons like the Darika, Ruru, Chanda and Munda are reenacted and celebrated, evil forces spreading epidemics are summoned and reprimanded, a warning to the wrongdoers is delivered through the oracles and other manifestations of the goddess. In the folk realm, her victory over Darika and Chanda-Munda is evoked. In the elite system of worship, the goddess is worshipped as Bhadra Kali in the rurujita form with Shakta system of rituals.
One of the main centres of Bhadrakali worship in Kerala is Kodungallur in Thrissur district. Placed in the middle of the comparatively peaceful town of Kodungallur, this Bhagavathi Temple will swing into action during the Bharani festival scheduled this year on April 4. Thousands of oracles (Velichappadus/Komarams) from all around Kerala will congregate in Kodungallur attired in red clothing with chiming bronze anklets and rattling belts shining in the penetrating April sun. Brandishing their sickle-shaped bronze swords decorated with bells, they dance in a trance, accentuating their dishevelled hair with rapid movements. The vermillion paste on their forehead soaked with sweat drips down their face, like the blood on the face of a wounded but victorious soldier. They are the foot soldiers of the goddess, dancing with war cries, celebrating her victory over evil. In the frenzy of the victory, emotions pour out, even studded with superlative abuses composed as ballads. In a trance they circumambulate the temple, banging on the roof with aggression. They will throw slaughtered meat into the premises along with vermillion and turmeric powder, singing, shouting and dancing. After the circumambulation of the temple, the devotees rush into the premises. This is the frenzy of Kavutheendal (defiling of the sacred precinct) as part of the Bharani festival at Kodungallur. Though the Bharani festival is also celebrated at Karthyayani Temple at Cherthala (Alappuzha district) and Bhadrakali temple at Sharkara (Thiruvananthapuram district), the Kavutheendal appears exclusive to Kodungallur.
Theendal is a word used for the act of defiling/polluting a highly structured caste system in Kerala. The word for untouchability in Malayalam language is ayittam and theendal. Ayittam probably came from the Sanskrit word ‘asuddha’ meaning impure and it stands for the whole system of caste hierarchy and segregation based on purity. Theendal means the mundane practice of ayittam. The word Theendal originated from the Malayalam word todu, meaning touch. Even now, one can get a glimpse of theendal by visiting Kerala temples when the santhikkaran (brahmin priest) gives you the prasadam (offering). He drops it into the receiver’s hand, leaving the distance of at least one foot between the devotee and himself. Here he is keeping the distance of theendal.
Thanks to the social reform movements enthused by the education system starting from the fag end of the 19th century, the opening of public roads and government institutions to the lower caste happened in the first quarter of the 20th century. The breaking of the caste hierarchy and public entry into the temple premises only happened in 1948 through the Temple Entry Proclamation for the Kochi region. A report by this newspaper on 23 March 2015 reads thus, “Long before the enactment of the Temple Entry Proclamation, Kodungallur Temple was open to Dalits during the Bharani fest for 27 days. Symbolically, the fest is dedicated to raw and untamed energy of the repressed. It provides an opportunity for repressed sections in society to vent out their anger in the form of a catharsis.”
Many mistakenly assume that the Bharani festival is named because it is conducted on the day of Bharani. Local historian V V K Valath, in one of his articles, suggested that Bharani is the sanskritised version of the Tamil word Parani mentioned in the ancient Tamil text Tolkappiyam as the favourite festival of the Tamil goddess Korravai. War songs like Kalinkapparani are an example of Parani poems prevalent in the Sangam period, adds Valath. The Kodungallur Kurumba Bhagavathi temple must have been the one mentioned in the Silappatikaram, with the myth of Kannagi integrated with that of Korravai and Bhadrakali. The word Kurumba gives yet another dimension of the worship of epidemics like small pox (Vasuri), which in Tamil and Malayalam is known as Kuruppu. At the Kodungallur temple, we do get the shrine of Vasuri Mala as subservient to the cardinal deity Bhadrakali.
So here is a goddess who protects her devotees from epidemics, gives spiritual asylum to the sacred Pattini (Consort) like Kannagi and allows millions of her repressed devotees to defile her sacred precinct. She is indeed, the Goddess for all.
Jayaram Poduval
Head, Department of Art History, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
(jpoduval@gmail.com)