Temple of Rama's brothers

He plays a vital role in the Ramayana. He is as wall-known as Rama, the hero of the first ever epic of India. His unstinted devotion to Rama and his love and affection towards him have made him the stuff of legends.

Even today, when people talk of devotion and love between kin, his name is taken first. He is Bharata, the second brother of Rama.

While there are thousands of temples dedicated to Rama, there are practically no temples to Bharata or Shatrughna. Or that is what I so thought. How wrong I was.

Indeed, there is a beautiful temple  to Bharata in Kerala.

This is the temple of Koodalmanikyam or Kudal Manikkam in Irinjalakuda in Trissur district.

Interestingly this is one of four temples called the Nalambam wjere each temple is dedicated to one person-Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna.

The Rama Temple is at Triprayar (22 Km north west of Irinjalakuda), the Bharatha Temple at Irinjalakuda, Lakshmana temple at Moozhikkulam (30 km south-west of Irinjalakuda) in Ernakulam district and Shatrughna Temple at Payammal (5 km south of Irinjalakuda).

Though the deity in this temple is that of Bharata, the idol in the sanctum sanctorum is worshipped as that of Chaturbuja Vishnu. Therefore, the deity is also called Sangameshwara (Lord of the Confluence).

The temples dates back to the Chera kings and the earliest reference to the temple is dated 854 AD in the reign of the Chera King Stanu Ravi Varman.

The inscriptions tells us about the vast lands that have been donated for the temple.

Koodalmanikyam Temple is a marvel in architecture. The sanctum sancturum is round shaped and the wood as well as stone carvings are so breathtaking that they attract students of art and architecture. The murals on the walls on either side of the Eastern entry to temple are a visual treat. The Temple has nourished arts such as Kathakali, Koothu, Koodiyattom and Thullal. This temple is home to some unique practices. There is no Deeparadhane to the deity. Besides, the deity is taken out in a ceremonial procession only during the annual festival. Moreover, sticks and camphor are not used for pooje. The floral offerings consist of  lotus, tulasi and Cheti (ixora). The lotus garland is important for the deity and no other flower is offered. The lotus garland must have a minimum of 101 flowers for it to be offered to the deity. The annual festival of the temple is held for ten days during Medam (April and May). The first day of the festival is arrived at by calculating the appearance of the moon. This is signified by hoisting a ceremonial flag. Generally, the first day falls a day after the famous Thrissur Pooram festival. On each of the ten days of the festival, caparisoned elephants are taken out in a procession twice. Such a procession is called Seevali. It is held once in the morning and once at night and it is accompanied by Panchari Melam or music. Seventeen elephants take part in the ritual. Two elephant calves escort the main elephant carrying the deity. The head dresses called Netti pattam in Malayalam, of seven of the elephants are made of pure gold, while for the others it is made of silver. The last two days of the festival features Panchavadya or the orchestra of sacred music of five instruments. This temple is 25 kms from Thrissur. It is well-connected by buses and other road transport. Temple of Shatrughna The temple to Shatrughna is located at Payammal, which is six kilometers from the Bharata temple at Irinjalakuda. The idol here is consecrated in a squarish granite santum sanctorum. The original idol has not been traced after the priests hid it in the temple pond for safety when Tipu and his army desecrated the temple here. This pond is behind the temple. The existing idol is made of granite. This is the smallest of the four temples. This is the final temple which devotees visit when they embark on the Nalambalam Yatra. This is considered to be one of the most holy event during the Malayalam month of  Karidakam. Kerala thus has the distinction of having temples in the names of all the four brothers-Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna. All the four temples are situated near to each other and it is believed to bring good luck and a long life if you manage to see all of them in one single day. The best place to stay and see all the temples is Thrissur. This city is well-connected by all forms of transport. The best way to see these temples is by hiring a taxi. Thrissur itself has several temples and the elephant race is a famous event.

A potter's daughter who bested Tenali

She was a lower caste woman who lived in the village of Gopavaram in Andhra Pradesh. The daughter of a potter, her horoscope had marked her for greatness.

Her father was Kesana, a Lingayat potter in Gopavaram on the banks of Pennar in preset day Nellore district.

Though she belonged to a low caste, it did not hinder her from perusing her literary tastes. This woman had developed a deep liking  for literature from a very young age and her father had

decided not to marry her young so that she could peruse her ambition of becoming an educated woman.

This woman is Atukuri Molla (1440-1530) and she outwitted Tenali Ramakrishna, the great poet and wit of Emperor Krishna Deva Raya of Vijayanagar.

This is how the incident unfolded.

Molla was sent to the village school from an young age and she also developed a habit of  visiting the Shiva temple nearby. When she was twelve years of age, her father took her to Srikalahasti where an astrologer forecast that she would bring honor to the family.

One day a poor old poet from Gopavaram visited Vijayanagar and came to the court of Krishna Deva Raya. The Telugu poet and one of the King’s favourite, Tenali Ramakrishna who was present in the court, challenged the poet to a contest.

“I bet neither you nor anyone from your village can write a great work”, he said mocking at the poet.

The poet went back to Gopavaram a deeply disappointed man.

When Molla heard about the how Tenali Ramakrishna had mocked the poet and her village, her blood boiled. She was outraged at the presumption of people that nobody cold produce a great work.

She then sent out a challenge, saying that she would compose a great work in just five days.

She said the great work would be the Ramayana, which would be written in a novel manner.

When news of the challenge reached Tenali Ramakrishna, he laughed loudly and sarcastically remarked how a potter's daughter could have such a big ego.

Molla then began thinking of ways and means to pen the Ramayana, The idea of writing it came to her when she was drying her hair after taking bath.

She sat in the Shiva Temple that she so frequently visited during her childhood and began composing the Ramayana in Telugu. She finished her Ramayana in five day, thus showing people and Tenali Ramakrishna that anything could be achieved if one were to be sincere, honest and dedicated.

We do not know what was Tenali Ramakrishna’s reaction after Molla completed the work. However, what is known for sure is that the work soon became the talk of the Vijayanagar Kingdom.

Since then, it has been inspiring generations of people.

Molla Ramayana has 138 stanzas and six chapters. It uses the minimum number of Sanskrit words and is mostly in colloquial Telugu.

The people took to it like duck to a water. It became a favourite of teachers who asked their students to study it, while grammarians pointed to it for its correct use of words.

Puppeteers used the work to tell the tale of the Ramayana, while singer-saints of Telugu provinces sang it to make people aware of the Ramayana.

As her popularity spread, she was invited to Royal court and got an opportunity to recite Ramayana in front of  Krishna Deva Raya and his poets, including Tenali Ramakrishna.

She spent her last years at Srisailam in the temple of  Srikantha Malleswara. She is the second female Telugu poet of note, after Tallapaka Timmakka, wife of Annamacharya.

The Molla Ramayana  today has its own place in Telugu literature. It not only bested the best wit of the Vijayanagar Kingdom but also captured the imagination of the people by its simple and lucid style. She did not dedicate her work to any Emperor as was the practice in those days. She dedicated it to Rama himself.

Molla now seems to have taken a new avatar. She is regarded by scores of people as being an avatar of Goddess Shambhavi. It is said that when Vijayanagar was being destroyed by the

Deccan rulers, Molla sought the intervention of Vishnu.

Vishnu told her that though Vijayanagar would not survive, her Ramayana would.              

  

   

Ravana's violin

Though the modern day violin is a western instrument,  its origin can be traced to a mythological figure in the Ramayana. This figure is none other than Ravana, the tragic villain of the epic and the king of Lanka who dies at the hands of Rama.

Ravana was skilled in many shastras, including astrology, Ayurveda and music. Of course that he was a matchless warrior is beyond doubt. But not many know that the earliest form of violin owes its origin to Ravana.

The violin in its present form came from mediaeval Europe. The first four-stringed violin was made by Andrea Amati of Italy. In India, the present day violin is believed to have been introduced by the East India Company and the early Portuguese. Records indicate that Baluswamy Dikshitar (1786-1859) learnt the violin in its present form from an English band master of the military band at Fort St. George in Madras.

Dikshitar, who was the brother of  Muthuswamy Dikshitar, one of the music trinity of Thyagaraja and  Shamba Shastry, helped adapt the violin to Carnatic music. He learnt violin for three years. He later became the court musician of Attaiyapuram in 1824.

A minister in the Marratha court of Tanjore, Varappa Iyer,  once visited the house of the British Govenor in Chennai. He was a scholar in music and knew English, The Governor gifted the minister the violin and also a piano. He then began accompanying some local musicians on the violin. Even today., there is a road in Tanjore named after him.

Vadivelu (1810 to 1845), of the four Tanjore brothers, was an earlier pioneer of the violin in Carnatic music. All the brothers were disciples of Muthuswamy Dikshitar. In 1834, Swathi Tirunal presented a violin made of ivory to Vadivelu.   

Vaduivelu was the Asthana Vidwan in Travancore during the reign of Swathi Tirunal (1813-1837).

At around the same time, the Portuguese Christian missionaries made extensive use of the violin during church services and also taught the use of the violin to converts. The violin thus came to be very popular in Goa, Kerala and other places where the Portuguese had their factories.

With the violin sharing a stringed bond with the veena and tamboori, the violin soon became an integral part of the Carnatic music ensemble. However, India had been familiar with bow like or stringed instruments from centuries.

The Mallikarjuna temple in Vijayawada built during the 10^th century and the Nataraja temple in Chidambaram during the 12^th century have sculptures playing a bow like stringed instrument. Even today, Rajasthan has continued with the tradition of a bow string. This tradition goes back to several centuries.

The bow like instrument in Rajasthan is  believed to have originated from Ravana more than 5,000 years ago. During the time of Ravana, it was called Ravanahatha.

The Ravanahatha is 22 inches in length and it is made of wood. It has three octaves. It was primarily made of coconut shells and bamboo.

Ravana was a master of  Ravanahatha.  He could play it so well, that even Shiva was moved by it. In Rajasthan, the legend is that Hanuman picked up the instrument from Lanka and came to Rajasthan where it underwent suitable changes. Thus, it is India that the oldest bow instrument originated.

Ravana also composed Shiva Thandava which is popular even today