The Long and Short of Kerala Tour.
As the title suggests, our Kerala tour was short-
of five days duration, as my visitors from US were on a tight India schedule. This
meant shortening the length and breadth of Kerala tour to visiting just two
places – Trivandrum and Alleppey , leaving out Munnar, Thekkady and Cape
Comorin which are famous for providing a world of elephantine beauty and natural serenity. A Tamil proverb
says that a grain of cooked rice in a pot is enough to show if the entire rice
in it is cooked or not. So also a visit just to Trivandrum and Alleppey is adequate to have a wholesome experience of
God’s own country with its distinctive
traditions and culture, its lush
unspoiled tropical beauty and its tranquil backwaters.
This trip was planned more as a pilgrimage
visit to Sri Anantha Padmanabhaswami Temple and to the temples of the Pancha pandavas
around a small village town, Chenganoor in the Alappuzha district 45 kms from
Alleppey than one of just vacationing. Hence
our first halt from Delhi was Trivandrum to pay our obeisance to the reigning deity
of the city, Sri Ananatha Padmanabha Swami. The temple opens at 3.30 in the
morning and closes at 8.20 pm though there are special timings for darshan as
follows.
03.30 am to 04.45 am (Nirmalya Darshanam)
06.30 am to 07.00 am 08.30 am to 10.00 am 10.30 am to 11.10 am 11.45 am to 12.00 Noon |
Evening
|
05.00 pm to 06.15 pm
06.45 pm to 07.20 pm
We were there around 6.00 in the
morning and as per the dress code of the temple(which is observed in many of
the Kerala temples) we found men bare- chested and in spotless white dhoti
while women were in sarees or in Mundus, the typical wear of Kerala women.
Though this is not the place for me to discuss the rigidity of dress code, I
have to admit to certain unease in such a proclamation as though it was God’s
written code. The only defence of such a code-a man made code- is the need to observe
decorum in the presence of the deity though it baffled me how a fully clothed
man in kurta pyjama or dhoti-shirt fell short of dress decorum before the
Lord. The same bafflement I felt with reference to women in salwar-kameez who
were asked to wear a mundu over the salwar. I came to the conclusion that
rationality has to yield to the dictates of emotion in matters relating to
temples and deities.
The precincts of the temple were
dirty and unclean as one waded through the muddy street and sidewalks encumbered with
the cheap display of small tradesmen. Since phones were not allowed
inside the temple, we had to deposit them in an ancient, dilapidated house.
There was only one door that was meant for entry and exit. It was such a
narrow entry that one had to wait one’s turn to get into a small room where
people stood in queues to deposit their cameras and phones. With the country
in cash crunch, it took a long time to pay 7 rupees as we had with us higher
denomination notes. It was ten minutes past 6 as we emerged out of the
deposit counter and rushed out only to be stopped in our track to go to a
rickety old rusted iron rack to place our footwear. We raced back through the
street where small sharp stones pierced our soles. It looked as though the
Lord was testing whether our spirit was strong even as our flesh was weak, having
to endure the sharp edged stone pricks.
We sprinted through the high raised
steps leading to the entry of the temple. The sanctum sanctorum where Lord
Vishnu lies reclining on a serpent could be reached after crossing seven doors,
each one of them with a raised one foot threshold (dehleez) . We ran as though we were racing the 110 metres hurdle.
December is the holy month of Margazhi and a large number of devotees on
their way to Sabarimala were present in distinct black or saffron dhoti. As
we approached the sanctum sanctorum, there were huge crowds near the narrow
door that led into a dark, unlit narrow corridor, running parallel to the
reclining Lord. Lord Vishnu is known as Anantha Padmanabha Swami, the Lord
reclining on Ananatha or the serpent. The main idol is 18 feet long and
cannot be viewed as a single piece. It can be viewed through three different doors. The head and chest are
seen through the first door; while the hands can be sighted through the
second door and the feet through the third door. With the swelling crowds
standing cheek by jowl in that narrow strip of a corridor, it was impossible
to view one third of the reclining Lord. There was hardly any light except a
single oil lamp in the sanctum sanctorum. A small made four foot nothing that
I am , I could only see the backs of
men and women around me and hear the gruff command of the orderlies near the
rope that divided the devotees from the Lord, asking us not to stand but keep
moving. It was a similar experience years back I had at Tirupati, where I
felt choked when hemmed in by the humungous crowds in the small strip before
the Lord.; the only difference was here the peremptory orders were in
Malayalam in place of Telugu. I wonder why the entry to the inner precinct is
kept narrow and pitch dark and why everyone is allowed at the same time to
squeeze in. One has to be a VIP or get the recommendations of a VIP to have a
good darshan in our celebrated temples. The aam admi and the aam aurat are
treated as cattle class. It is another thing that this less privileged groups
have phenomenal faith that gives them extraordinary resilience and power to
endure such hardships. There could
have been a restriction on the number of devotees allowed to entreat one time
by making batches of 20 to be permitted to enter and giving them 20 seconds to see the Lord and move out
before allowing the next batch to enter. It was not so much mismanagement as
no management. Our temples that are prescriptive with regard to dress codes do not have a code
for an orderly queue that enables everyone to worship the Lord hassle free. The elderly people with failing eyes and
halting gait were the ones put to enormous difficulty. I almost choked and
wondered if I would come out in one piece. What if I got crushed and defiled
the sanctum sanctorum and caused a stampede! Have the temple authorities any
idea of crisis management during such
tragic moments? We were happy to breathe the fresh air as we stepped out,
though we were disappointed that our wholeome tryst with Lord Anantha
Padmanabha Swami had to be deferred to a later date.- maybe our next visit
should be planned in post-Sabarimala
season.
We were lucky to get a
more satisfying darshan in Alleppey where we visited the Ambalapuzzha Krishna
temple, 14kms from Alleppey and which had been built during the 15th-17th
AD. It is said that “the idol at Ambalapuzha is likened to Parthasarthi
with a whip in the right hand and a Shankhu (sacred conch) in the left.” This
temple is directly associated with the
Guruvayoor
Sree Krishna as the idol was brought here from Guravayoor to escape the marauding
rampage of Tipu Sultan. Here also there was a long queue of devotees waiting
to enter the temple. We were there an hour in advance and stood almost at the
entrance. Little did we realize that when the doors opened, the devotees
would throng at the entrance as the serpentine queues had swollen both on the
right and left side of the temple garbha
griha (the innermost sanctum).
But we were able to cross the threshold and stand in front of Lord Krishna
for a few seconds. The more persistent among the devotees that included my
sister-in-law and my husband managed to stand for a full minute before they
were edged out. The temple has beautiful paintings of the Dasavatharam
(the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu) on the walls enclosing the Lord’s
precincts. On the walls that enclose the square corridor for the devotees to go
round in pradakshina or parikrama(circumbulation of the corridor surrounding
the deity), we have the paintings depicting the life of Krishna from his
childhood to his Gita Upadesh to Arjuna. Added to the beauty of the temple
and the Lord, was the chanting of the devotees providing a spiritual and
sacred atmosphere. This temple of Krishna is often referred to as the Dwaraka
of the south.
Our visit to the Pandava temples in Chenganoor was sandwiched
between our visits to Ananatapadmanabha Swami and Sri Krishna temples. Having read about Chenganoor
where the personal idols worshipped by the five Pandavas of the Mahabharata had been kept inside a rock, we
motored down to the sleepy town of Chenganoor, 43 kms from Alleppey. According
to the Mahabharata epic, while on
pilgrimage, the five Pandava brothers built five unique Mahavishnu temples along the
banks of the holy and the longest
river in Kerala, the River
Pamba. Yudhishtira the eldest of the Pandava brothers installed Lord Visnu at Thirichittattu,
less than 2 km. north of Chengannur. Bhima built a Vishnu temple at
Thripuliyoor. Arjuna built the Krishna Parthasarathy Temple at Thiruarunmula.
Nakula Pandava built a Vishnu temple at Thiruvanvandoor. And finally,
Sahadeva built a temple at Thirikudithanam. The five temples are collectively
known as the Pandava Temples. Chengannur is one of the holy sites visited by
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu on his southern tirtha-yatra.(Sri Krishna Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu, a spiritual leader of the 15th Century is often regarded as Sri Krishna himself who
came as a dveotee of Sri Krishna to teach the people how to attain perfection
in life through Bhakti. He is known as Lord Gauranga –Lord with a golden
body.)
The two hours travel on a bumpy road from Alleppey to Chengannur
was equal to working on a treadmill for two hours. The roads were dusty, full
of speed breakers, potholes and depressions and the bumpy roads made all of
us weary and sore. But the natural beauty of green fields and shady trees on
either side of the road helped us to bear the bumps and the frequent jerks
and oscillations from left to right, from back to front. There was no signage
anywhere to direct us to the temples and if there wa an odd one, it was in
Malayalam. We enquired all along the way about the rock temple of the
Pandavas but no one had a clue to it. We meandered our way through narrow
alleys of Chengannur to arrive at the temple built by Nakul at
Thiruvanvandoor. The temple had a
majesty of its own, with the standing idol of Lord Vishnu, looking serene and
strong. There was no sign of a priest and a young lad of 14 or 15 sat there
to receive our offerings of flowers and Tulsi(the holy basil). We waited for
the elder priest to arrive to offer our basket to the Lord. The unique
feature of temples in Kerala is there is no arathi- the lighting of camphor in a big spoon , which in a small
way throws light on the face, body and the full image of the Lord. We came
out and tried to find out where the
other Pandava temples were. There were hardly 3-4 people and none of them had
heard about the rock caves where the personal idols of the Pandavas had been
placed. People outside of the city speak only Malayalam and do not have even
a smattering knowledge of English or Hindi or even the southern language of
Tamil. But despite the language barrier, they were ready to help us to the
extent possible. We were lucky to find a young lady who knew English. She
became the translator and she was able to give us the direction to the rock
caves even though neither she nor the people there had any clue to the
Pandava idols enshrined there. Throughout our stay and our drive through
different parts of Chengannur, we came across friendly people who were
willing to provide us the information we asked for.
Kerala is synonymous with simplicity and purity- the latter seen
in the white mundus and dhotis men wear and white mundus and white or off
white blouses that women wear. The
population comprises Hindus, Muslims and Christians and it is the one place in
India that can still boast of peaceful co existence of all religions. Since
we had gone during Christmas, we could see the churches sparkling white, decorated with stars and cross, and in
Jewish synagogues, the star of David with two interlocking triangles. We
found the stars in all shops and houses that belonged to non-Christian
denomination. Kerala has this amazing tradition of accommodating different
faiths - a sign of its maturity and literacy. I saw many Supermarkets with the board “Margin free supermarket”
Kerala was the first to start this as a part of Consumer Protection and
Guidance forum where Provisions, Toiletries,
Gift Articles, Kitchenware, plastic goods, fans, mixers, pressure
cookers etc. are being sold at reduced rates varying from 1 to 40%
less than the maximum retail price fixed by the companies. Kerala for long
under Communist governance is one of the few urban societies to experience
egalitarianism.
We wound our way through a village track that looked more like a
pedestrian walkway. Our big van bumped its way through this track with
occasional gorges on either side. All of a sudden, after a couple of kms, we
saw a huge rock more like a boulder, embedded in the soil. It looked as
though this fragment of a rock had detached itself from its place of origin. There
were a few houses, most of them below the rocky area and the women came out in curiosity as our
van made its way to the majestic rock known as the Guha pura. The Van stopped
as the rock was at the end of the track. There were around 30-40 steps to
climb the rock. The steps were well made with railings on either side- a distinct
indication that it was not a god forsaken place. One of the women volunteered
to say that the priest at the Mahadev temple in the main village had locked the gate at the top and that he should be requested to come and
open it. It was 10.30, the time when all temples in Kerala close and so to
retrace the entire narrow track to the village would take at the least a good
half an hour. The van had to be reversed- a herculean task for the driver- as
one small mistake would have plunged the van into the gorges. The women came
forward to direct the driver to maneuver the van by 90 degrees to return
along the track. The adroitness of the
driver and the guidance of the women together made it possible to reverse the
huge van and drive bac to the village.
One of the women whose husband had returned with his motorbike suggested that
he could take the driver in his vehicle to the village to fetch the priest.
But the driver was reluctant as he was a Christian and the priest may not
favour him. The attempt was given up and we were content with our visit to one
of the Pandava’s (Nakul’s) temple. The
pity is such a historical place had no value for the Kerala tourism management.
Here is a place the Pandavas had visited in the Dwapara Yuga that was around
3000 B.C. To establish contact with our ancestors after 5000 years by
visiting the idols they had worshipped
and visiting the temples they had built is indeed a historical connect
with the past. Kerala tourism had failed to recognize the importance of
Chengannur that had such a historical value. It is not a legendary or a
mythological place; it had actually existed and so did the Pandavas. There is
sufficient historical truth in the rock as to
how the Pandavas had made use of it. India is still far far away from
preserving archival and heritage sites. Learned scholars and researchers can
cull enough material to
illustrate the times,
tradition, culture of the earlier yuga. Here was a full evidence of epic characters whom all men and women revere and love, whom some regard as divine
and who were one of us--who lived our
life, and taught our doctrine. The visit to Chenagnnur like the visit to
Ananatha Padmanabha Swami temple proved that our tryst with this epic, historical
place will have to be fulfilled at a
later date.
Two other
places we visited were memorable and noteworthy. The first was our visit to
Raja Ravi Varma’s art gallery in Trivandrum and the second was the boat ride
on the Alleppey back waters . Alleppey is the hub of backwater tourism in
Kerala. Alleppey or Alappuzha means
land between the sea where a network of rivers flows into it. The cruise through
the backwaters in Kerala proved to be one of the high watermarks of a Kerala
visit. Backwater by definition means “a part of a river not reached by the
current, where the water is stagnant”, and Kerala showcases a great deal of
its picturesque backwaters in Alleppey. The canal cruise through the Alleppey
canals is an interesting experience. One could see the vast stretches of paddy
fields, coconut lagoons, large flocks of ducks, birds of different kinds and
interesting aspects of life on land and water. The breathtaking stretches of
vast stretches of water, sparkling in the mellowing western sun ,twisting and
winding like a bluish anaconda has to
be seen to be believed. As we cruised
through the canals, we came near the Alleppey beach with its glistening
golden coloured sands, crystal clear water, beautiful waves, enchanting
sunrise and sunset. The beach has beautiful stretches, making the visit to
this beach quite ecstatic and enjoyable. Close to the beach, there is a
magnificent statue of Pieta- a replica of Michelangelo’s statue of Mother
Mary with the crucified Jesus on her lap. I had seen the original statue in Sistine Chapel and later in the
Michelangelo museum in Italy. The boat did not go close to it, but from a
distance the statue had a calming influence as it showed Mary with no spasms
of pain, but serene, calm and gentle holding Jesus with his right arm falling
limp. I felt a strange sense of intensity- pain at viewing Jesus along with a
sense of peace that he is on the lap of his virgin mother, Mary. A Pain and
peace make for “a perfect, profound paradox.”
The other place of great interest was Raja Ravi Varma Art
Gallery in Trivandrum. Raja Ravi Varma dominated the Indian art scene-
referred to as Ravi Varma epoch for a period of four decades from 1870
onwards. For the first time, I understood the egalitarian quality of his paintings.
A portrait painter and a painter of Gods and Goddesses, he was also a painter
of the common people. Born into a princely family, the self taught genius
painted men and women in their infinite variety. The museum had also
paintings that he had collected in his life time. It is said that he blended tradition
and modernity and thus was “ a modern among traditionalists and a
traditionalist among moderns”. This gallery is known as The Sree Chithra Art
Gallery and displays rare collection of paintings by Raja Ravi Varma,
Svetlova and Nicholas Roerich. We also find exquisite works from the Mughal,
Rajput and Tanjore schools of art. Besides
an oriental collection consisting of paintings from China, Japan, Tibet and
Bali The collection also includes unique copies of Indian mural paintings
from pre-historic times down to the 18th Century. In the modern era where
dehumanization of art has become the norm, a return to humanization of art
was a refreshing experience.
The Kerala tour, though short proved to be a historic,
noteworthy and indelible visit. I cannot sum up better than what Gustave
Flaubert said: “Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you occupy
in the world.” And what Marcel proust
wrote: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes,
but in having new eyes.” With humility and with
new eyes I returned to savour through these word my discovery of Kerala.
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