Two peculiar practices in festival celebrations that existed in Palakkad tamil brahmin villages

Two peculiar practices in festival celebrations that existed in Palakkad tamil brahmin villages

Compiled by

P.R.Ramachander

      There is no doubt at all that  the Palakkad   Brahmins    are   the Brahmins of Tamil Nadu   who have migrated to  Palakkad   for some reason or other and

there   is also no doubt that  they  speak    tamil   language  which is different from   the tamil  spoken in  Brahmin homes  in Tamil Nadu .They speak it with a malayalam   accent borrowing very many  new  Sanskrit   and  malaylam  origin words .(long long back  one tamil author had written “  All tamilians   who migrated to Kerala   got cold due to heavy rain there and started speaking tamil words   with nasal twang .He had mentioned “Naangal”   turning to “Jnaangal”   and “THengai”   to “THenkai”)

There is also no doubt that  they  altered  the  recipes of the traditional   dishes from  Tamil Nadu, borrowing heavily   from the Nambudiri  recipes of Kerala by adding coconuts in almost all dishes and cooking   with coconut oil  and also  adding pepper.

    Most of the readers   also know that   they have adopted festivals like onam and Vishu   from Kerala  as their  important festivals and have started giving  lesser importance to  traditional Tamil nadu festivals like  Deepavali  and Pongal. Possibly many of the outsiders  may not know the   peculiar practices   in celebrations  of Avani avittam    and Ashtami Rohini    festivals which existed  in Kerala  Tamil Brahmin   villages

1.Avani avittam

      Like  Tamil Nadu   all  Brahmins so observe  Upakarma  as a religious festival  .It starts   with a hair cut and eating  Idli  for break fast . But there is a peculiar custom observed by boys   who have not undergone  Poonal in the villages there..Even before avaniyavittam day they collect a  stick of banyan tree/Plasu tree .They take this branch  that day to all Brahmin homes    singing

  “Avaiavattam Komanam ,

   Ambi poranthal Shobhanam

Akka  porantha Ukkarai,

Ammaan porantha Ayiram panam,

Patti porantha Bakshanam

Patta  porantha  Pazhukka  Vadi”

   And in each house a Mama   would be waiting to tire a new Komanam(Kaupeenam/Loin cloth)  .In some rich Brahmin houses   they do tie a pattu KOmanam (Silk loin cloth) on the stick   . These sticks containing  komanam used to be kept in their respective homes and  the boys  used to wear  Komanams    from that stick    for the entire year

2,AShtami  Rohini

       The is the   birth day of Lord Krishna.Like homes in Tamil  Nadu the housewives  of Palakkad Brahmin houses   also  prepare the uppu cheedai and Vella CHeedai  .They also prepare Neyappams (Modified  unni appams of Kerala fried in ghee   and not in oil), Payasam, Vella avil etc.  When they are doing this the young girls of the village   take bath , take a  brass cup each for collecting oil   for temple lamp  from all homes, where a Mami would give each of them one spoon of oil   . While collecting they normally sing

Sheeshantee sambaram

Shivaratri sambharam

Gopalakrishnaswamikku oor vilakkukku  ennai

Aachi paarthaal aachu  allaattaal pochu..

(Thanks for my friend Sri Anantha narayanan Vaidyanathan   for these  lines from his old memory.

    For a long time I did not understand  what “Seesanthy Sambharam” means.  SAmbharana  in Malayalam and Sanskrit means collection    and Seesanthy  is only the corrupted from of the festival name “Sree  Jayanthi” )

    In the evening   all the girls used to take    the oil they have collected to the local Agraharam temple , for lighting lamps with great pride

    Both these practices are  not there among Malayalis, From y interaction with my tamilian friends, these   also are not practiced  by Tamil Brahmins. 

   Can any of you throw some light on the  sources of origin    of these peculiar practices.  These almost have disappeared from Kerala village agraharams  also , as 90% of the Brahmins in these   villages  have gone  and settled outside kerala.