Tamil New Year

The month of Chittrai (April - May) embarks the time of festivities in Tamil Nadu and starts off the Tamil year running through to Panguni (March - April), 2009. Tamil's New Year Day “Puthandu” (according to the Gregorian Calendar) is celebrated on April 13 or 14 every year. People greet each other “Puthandu Vazthukal” which means Happy New Year. This auspicious day is also known as “Varusha Pirappuv”, a time upon which, Lord Brahma is believed to have started the creation of the Universe.

The day starts with viewing the “kanni” (the auspicious sight) at dawn, in the expectation that beginning the New Year by looking at auspicious or favourable things will bring good fortune throughout the year. Such auspicious items includes; old and silver jewellery, betel leaves, nuts, fruits and vegetables, flowers, raw rice and coconuts. “Kanni” is followed by a bath and visit to the Temple to pray for a prosperous and happy New Year. After which, the Panchangam (almanac) is read. Ladies adorn the entrances of their houses with “Kolam” (design made with rice flour) and deck the doorway with mango leaves.

It is during the month of Chittirai the marriage of Goddess Meenakshi to Lord Sundareswarar is celebrated as “Chitthirai Festival”.

Normal Service Resumed!

Recently posted information on how a small number of Tamil language activists decided to change non-Tamil names into Tamil, regardless of tradition, history, common usage, or name recognition. In this respect they decided to jetison the name Arunachala in favour of Annamalai Hill. Well, normal service has been resumed and Wikipedia has the sacred Hill once again listed as Arunachala. You can get more information about this by going to this link on Wikpedia.

Cow Pongal

Attended a very sweet cow worship over the Pongal Festival. Cow Pongal is always the third day of the January Festival and wherever celebrated in Tamil Nadu, follows much the same format. The whole cow area will be cleaned, cows bathed and their horns painted. Some cows may even get jewellery or trinklets put around their neck. In the below a kolam (auspicious drawing) is being made at the front of the cow shed.

In the below is Lakshmi, who is a young cow belonging to one of the ladies of the family. Already Lakshmi's future has been decided and she will be kept as a pet, no rigours of constant motherhood and commercial milk production. Artificial insemination is commonly used to impregnate cows. In this respect a visit to the Government Veterninary Centre in Tiruvannamalai is an interesting experience as that is where many of the local cows are artifically impregnated.

As to Lakshmi, as she is not a trained animal she definitely must have some kind of regal karma, notice over the next photographs, how she presents herself for her Pongal flower garland. What a diva!

The next photograph is of one of babies of the dairy. Its an interesting experience having a dairy so close to my home because I can reminded first hand of the business of 'milk production'. And I must admit to being guilty of perpetuating the whole dairy cycle, because my dogs and I, do get through alot of milk products. The neighouring dairy is wonderful compared to most, and the cows have a comparatively lucky, peaceful life, however its a constant reminder of just how badly we exploit our little bretherns.

Whatever it is - one thing is for sure the below calf is a 100% knockout - what a darling.

The below is the inside of the little rustic dairy. Happily most of these cows get to spend the days outside in the nice sun and peaceful surrounds.

In the below some goats, who don't actually have such a protected life as the dairy cows - as an animal activist from Andhra Pradesh once told me, 'Everytime you see a goat - you see meat on the hoof - they are all for slaughter.'

One of the ladies making last minute preparations for Pongal puja at the cow shed.

A worker at the dairy had prepared a lemon, by incising a cross on the top which is then filled with red kumkum powder and packed with camphor. The camphor will be lit and then waved as jyothi during the puja.

Once the lemon is used, then the same thing happens with a white pumpkin. After the camphor is burned off, the pumpkin will be smashed and broken on the ground to ward of evil and negative vibrations.

The smokey haze in the below, is that of frankincense which has been wafted as a purifying agent all around the cow shed. These little ones are just hanging out together in mutual companionship, wondering at all the madness of the day - well one big plus for all the cows is they had their fill of special treats including LOTS of bananas.

Folk Arts

"The 20 or so members of Ramu’s troupe have already made their way to the bus that will take them to their performance venue. A shrill announcement on a loudspeaker nearby not so kindly urges him to hurry up. Before he can dig into his lunch, he drops everything, grabs his grand, flowing, bright red costume and hurries on his way.

That’s the life of a travelling folk artist in a nutshell: the needs of your troupe always come ahead of your own, and when the road calls, you have to answer.

Ramu who represents the last generation of a long line of stunt performers from Periyanelaikuzhu in Tiruvannamalai, is currently performing in Chennai. His troupe has travelled all over the country to perform at various events. They had recently been to New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and several towns in Orissa.

The many events his troupe attended last year are a testament to the recent resurgence in patronage for folk art. Folk festivals in cities are becoming more common, and performers attract huge crowds when they perform during temple festivals in villages and towns across the south.

Twenty or thirty years ago, it was much harder for my father and grandfather to get by, but now there are many more opportunities with festivals. Despite growing patronage, many families still want their children to find more stable and settled source of livelihood.

"We love performing, we all do this full time and even make a good living out of it," Ramu says. "But it's a tough life. We spend most of our time on the road, away from home, as we have to go wherever we get the opportunity to perform."

Another factor that keeps the younger generation away is because of better access to education, they can find jobs that offer more security. Both of Ramu’s children are enrolled in local schools, and he believes education is a much better prospect.

"I am proud of the fact that they are both in school," he says. "I did not have that opportunity, so I want them to make a living using their education."

Although a good living wage is available to younger performers, there is no source of income after retirement. Some think that the need is to develop a system in which the Government pays a pension to older, retired folk artists."

[By Ananth Krishnan]

Karthigai Lamps

Lamps are of varied sizes, shapes and colours. Traditionally, lamps are lit in temples and agal vilakkus adorn the thinnais of houses. Bigger lamps made of mud; stone and metal are lit inside homes. The ancient Tamils are said to have even imported lamps from as far as Greece and Rome, through the ports of Arikamedu (near Puducherry), Mallai or Mamallapuram and Mylai or Mylapore (part of present-day Chennai). One such imported lamp was of the hanging variety, designed in the shape of a swan with a fish placed at the top.

Another variety of lamp, common in Tamil Nadu from early times was the Lakshmi Vilakku or Pavai Vilakku. It was shaped like a woman (bearing in her folded palms), the shallow bowl containing oil for lighting the lamp.

At Arikamedu, archaeologists have unearthed a flat circular clay lamp with four nozzles or petals or openings for four wicks. Another clay lamp discovered at this site has 12 nozzles.

The ubiquitous five-nozzle kuthu vilakku has been in use from the days of the Cholas or perhaps even earlier. When the British East India Company began to rule parts of South India, it featured the petals or nozzles of the kuthu vilakku on some of the coins that were minted. The five petals or nozzles are also said to denote the five main elements are supposed to represent the five elements of Nature — earth, water, fire, air and sky or space. The five nozzles are also said to denote the five main elements needed for a successful life — health, wealth, learning, courage and longevity.

Silver Kuthuvilakkus

The three Gods Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva are believed to be present in the Vilakku. At the base part is Bramha,the middle part Vishnu and the broad part on top is Shiva

The Glow of the vilakku is represented as Goddess Lakshmi,the Light by Goddess Saraswati and the Heat by Goddess Parvati.

Vilakkupic

The five wicks in the kuthuvilakku represents our five senses and also the Panchaboothangal: 5 elements of the World; Earth, Water, Air, Sky and FireTraditionally, after Karthigai, most of these lamps, except for those in daily use, were cleaned and stacked away, and taken out only the next year for the festival. In the old, tiled-roof houses, agal vilakkus were invariably stacked in the loft beneath the roof.

Dung Cakes

As well as for dairy products the cow is highly valued in this country for another of its products i.e. dung! Wherever the cow roams, sooner or later someone will come along and scoop up its dung from the roadway and make patties (as below) to be used as fuel for cooking. As a cow's diet is herbal, the dung's odour is in no way distressing, so don't be too freaked out with these photographs. In the below photograph, this lady is adding wood chippings and/or straw to the dung, shaping them into patties and then sticking them to the wall to dry.

When there is no wall handy, lining the patties up on the roadway also works!

From the old impressions on the wall, this particular spot looks like its a popular place for drying up patties.

The whole wall is covered and the patties will be left there until they are nicely dried-out ready to be used as fuel for cooking. Even when dry, when smouldering, the patties make alot of smoke and although the smell is herbal and aromatic, its definitely not good to be around burning dung cakes if you have asthma or bronchitis.

In the below photograph you can see a basket filled with patties ready to be used to cook the food on this open stove.

Not surprised this lady has chosen to cook outside her home, as the smokey fumes of the cow patties would drive her out quickly if she tried cooking indoors.

Walk About

Even though there is a rapid urbanization of the Tiruvannamalai area, still there are several pockets of unspoiled, idyllic, countryside close to the southside of Arunachala and near to major ashrams and facilities. One of these favourite idyllic spots is the area which lies between the parallel roads of NH-66 (to Bangalore) and the lower lying Perumbakkam Road.

In the below photograph a traditional rustic farmhouse.

While visiting with the family I even got to name the little baby cow - Meenakshi.

If you would like more information about this area, please get in touch at:

arunachalameenakshi@rediffmail.com