Puthucode Gramam
Location : Palakkad District
Compiled by
P.R.Ramachander
Puducode (also spelled Puthucode and Puthukode)
is a village and gram panchayat in Palakkad district It
is situated in Alathur taluk, around 12 km from Alathur and
4 km from Vadakkancherry, on the western bank of Mangalam River,
a sub-tributary of Bharathapuzha.
This village is possibly the biggest and prosperous
Brahmin village outside the Palakkad villages. It had about 500 houses arranged
in four streets. The north and South streets were the earliest and came in to
existence some 500 years back. In between these two streets is the Puthucode
Bhagavati temple. This village was from the earliest times known as a village
of Vedic scholars and musicians. One Rama Sastrigal is supposed to have taken
out the idol from the temple tank and around this idol the Puducode Bhagawati
temple was built. There is also a story that the idol was made in Trithalai and
was brought by Vedic Brahmins chanting Vedas all the way. The idol though
called Bhagawati was identified as Annapurneswari by some and Santha Durga by
others. In her hand she carries a Shanka and Chakra instead of the ladle and
pot normally carried by Annapurneswari idols. There is also a practice of the
Brahmins of the village chanting Shyamala Dhandagam in front of the goddess.
This prayer sings praise of Goddess Saraswati. The Iyers of the village gave
the management of the temple to Naduvil madam (A Namboothiri Sankara Mutt) due
to financial reasons, who were managing it till recently. Now the temple is managed
by SAPCO an association of iyers belonging to the village founded in the year
1982. But recently the Cochin DEvasvam
has taken over the management of
the temple.
This temple also has a Ganapathi idol as well as a Bhuta
Prathishta (called Visha Kavu) in which the Sarpa kavu as well as Sastha idols
are also installed. There is a peculiar observation called Ayilu before this
Bhuta Prathishta. This consists of burning two continuous bathing towels dipped
in til oil before the Prathishta. The coal resulting out of the burning is
taken as prasada.
There is also a Shiva temple in the village managed by
the Iyers of the North Street. SAPCO has done commendable work in restoration
of both temples and also their day-to-day management.
The major festival of the village is Navarathri. The
first day festival is celebrated by the Otta Madams (meaning non attached
houses) Second and seventh days are celebrated by the east street, third, fifth
and eighth by the North street, fourth and sixth by the South street and the
ninth by the west street. On sixth, seventh and eighth days there is a gala procession
of the idol on caparisoned elephants accompanied by the Pancha Vadyam (musical
orchestra in which five musical instruments are used). On the tenth day is the
Arattu in which the idol is dipped in the village stream. Though the regular
worship at the temple is performed by Iyers, during this festival the pooja is
performed by Namboothiri Brahmins. Another peculiarity of the festival is the
feast during Navarathri days when Puducode Pulungary and Olan are served daily.
This Pulungari is not usually prepared in the iyer or nair houses and people
believe that the taste of the pulungari is very great when prepared in the
temple. There is a proverb that “after Puducode there is no Agraharam and after
Pulungari there is no Kootan”. The other festival which is celebrated by the
village is Shivarathri in the Shiva temple for 8 days.
Maha
Periyavaa is supposed to have visited the temple
and stayed there one month. Later Swamy Jayendra
Saraswathi of Kamakoti peetam also visited the
temple.
Puducode village was also a great centre of education in Sama
Veda , where late P.K.Gopala Vadhyar who was an
expert in the THanjavur method of Chanting Sama Veda ,
lived.He was an expert in Kauthuma Tradition of chanting Sama Veda(Called
Ramanna patam ) , though this style of chanting
has almost disappeared from its home Thanjavur.,.Howard university
entrusted the job of recording this unique method of chanting to
one L.S.Rajagopal of Trichur .I understand that the
major part of chanting of Sama Veda by Gopala Krishna
Vadhyar has been preserved in that university. The
BHavan’s branch of Puthucode has also preserved these
records.
At the
initial stages there was only a school run by one
Gopalakrishna Iyer in the village which used to
give education up to elementary level. At that time to study up to high
school , students had either to go to Alathur or
Thiruvilvamala..Poor and middle class students used to walk down to and
fro while rich families used to hire a home and employ a cook so that
their children can study there .Later a Sanskrit Pata Sala
called “Hari Hara Pathasala “ was established by one
Justice Sundaram Iyer who was from Puducode a
prominent Madras High Court judge during the early part of the 20thcentuary.
This was integrated in to an English medium higher secondary
school with greater emphasis on Sanskrit by one Sri
P.R. Narayana iyer.This institution also became a Sanskrit
College in later days.
Sarvajana High
School is based in the village. It was built around 70 years ago in front of
the West Nada of Sri Annapoorneswari temple and is itself fronted by another
temple .Initially it was started only for girls education as the years passed
by, the school expanded and started preparing pupils from the Nursery class up
to X Standard. There is also a School
being run by Bharathiya Vidhya
bhavan which follows the CBSE
syllabus
As indicated, this village was well known for
its scholars and musicians. Some of the great musicians of the earlier times
were Seshu Bhagavathar, Venkichu Bhagavathar, Seetharama Bhagavathar who served
in the court of Cochin king, Visweswara Bhagavathar and Madhu Bhagavathar who
was an expert in Veena. Among the present day greats is Puducode Krishnamurthy
Bhagavathar. Among the Vedic pundits were Rama Vadhyar, Ananthanarayana
Vadhyar, Rama Ganapadigal and Agni Sastrigal Deekshitar. Also there is P. C. Sreeram,
a cinematographer in
Indian cinema.
6 comments:
Written very well, No words to explain the feelings we get when we are there in our Village.
How Old may be the current houses in our Villages. Just asking out of curiosity.
Well Explained ,Great
Well Explained ,Great
Great narration.sree seetharama bhagwathars daughter is still alive in Bangalore and her grandson syammahadevan is also in the field of music mainly Harmonium
Well written.
P.s.gopalakrishnan ( grand son of agneeswara sastrigal
Well written
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