Raja Ravi Varma Eramalpad

 

Ravi varma Raja ..not many had heard of him in Kerala Iam sure .

The reason is the distorted history taught in our schools and colleges .

A History which eulogises tyrants and bigots like Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan known to have converted ,massacared,maimed,raped,and looted thousands of commen men and women who lived in erstwhile Malabar .

They destroyed and desecrated many temples stripping it of wealth and denigrating and vilyifying its deities .

As the British who ruled Madras Presidency were opposed to Tipus taking over the land that they wanted and they supported those who rose against him , was the only reason why Tipu fought the  British not because he was a freedom fighter as made out !

In those days of several small fiefdoms and kingdoms there was no unitary concrpt of a country fighting for freedom from British .

Fights of freedom happened in all directions with convinient alliances and breaking away of th alliances as convinient .

Ravi varma raja belonged to Padinjare kovilakkam of Maankaavu of Zamorin family who had ruled Calicut or Kozhikode for 600 years .

Incidentally my maternal grandfather belongs to this branch of the Zamorin family ,but today they are just powerless figments of their former selfs .

Ravi varma Raja lived between 1745 to 1793 .

In 1766 Hyder Ali invaded Malabar and the Samorin with his Nair warriors fought valiantly but in 1767 Hyder Ali managed to win .

By then the Samorin had sent his relatives to safe haven in Ponanni and immolated himself instead of sure imprisonment  by Hyder Ali who would forcibly convert and torture  him .

Hyder is defeated in 1767 and samorin returns to take over kingdom .

There is an interval of peace till 1774 

Instead of fortifying himself against  Mysore or even going into an alliance with them he does neither instead goes for a fight with Cochin !

In 1774 Hyder returns to a war and samorin fleds to Travancore 

In 1782 Ravi varma army get whole of Calicut but in 1784 Tipu got Malabar by traty of Mangalore .

Ravi varma keeps troubling him .

In 1788 Tipu heads a huge army to counter Ravi varma and takes over part of Manjeri called Karannavapad .

Tipus men under French commander Lally failed to subdue Ravi verma and Hyder Ali tries to get a deal with him which does not work out .

There develops a power vacum and second in line in the royal family Eralppad takes over .

Thus Raja Krishna Varma becomes the samorin and rules with the help of his nephew Ravi varma who is made the commander of the armed forces .

Ravi varma had fought Hyder Ali  in 1766 initially as regular army but after a defeat as guerilla warfare he needled Hyder Ali ., who massacared more than 10000 

Finally Hyder had to retreat .

Ravi Varma had rescused more than 30000 Namboothiri brahmins and sent them to Travancore for safety .

Ravi varma and his brave warriors continue thier war against Tipu till 1791 .

In 1780 Tipu willingly gave him a piece of tax free land to mollify his agression but Ravi varma took the land but continued to kill Tipus men .

Finally Tipu sent a large army to Calicut agsinst Ravi varma who now took British help to defeat Tipu .

The British reneged on thier agreement in alliance to give the samorin kingdom back once they helped win it back  and Ravi varma rajas nephew another Ravi varma stabbed Swaminatha Iyer the traitor Dewan and fled to Wynad to join forces with Pazhassi Raja against British .

But Swaminatha iyer lived to tell the tale after the attack as he was taken to 

Ravi varma Raja himself was captured by British and died in captivity in Cherplassery while his nephew committed suicide fearing arrest by the British .

But today Tipu Sultan is made a freedom fighter ! And no one really knows of valiant fighters who fought for thier land in defiance to the bigots who religiously persecuted millions .

The second big lie is the more recent Moplah legala or massacare which has been twisted by seculars as a freedom struggle but was actually a cruel genocide .

Strangely next year its century is planned and some films based on the false history are even planned .

I shall write on that too shortly as it was my native places which were most affected .

Picture shows Zamorin in his hey days...from online..can be deleted if needed.

Rajarajeswari temple

 

Rajarajeswara temple Taliparamba Kannur ..in 2018

It was dusk when we reached here.

There was a reason for the same .

Women devotees are allowed into the Naalambhalam ie inner sanctum here only in evening (i hope no one files a PIL as all devotees are fine with it ).

The reason is in evening the deity is supposed to be in a genial mood with his consort .

The temple is ancient and has lot of legends behind it .

It also achieved fame by visits of political heavy weights like late Jayalalitha and present Karnataka CM and some cinema stars .

But Rajarajeswara temple does not need these mortals for fame .

Its other way around .

The main deity is Lord Shiva .

The temple is very strict in its rules 

No one can carry mobiles or cameras inside and hence my pictures are from outside only .

The men que was literally not there so i could go in and come out in a jiffy while the ladies que was long and tortuous .

Rajarajeswara temple is one of the 108 ancient Shiva temples of Kerala .

The temple has no kodi maram or flagstaff like most temples do .

The place Taliparambha is considered as a shakti peethams one of the places where a part of a dead Sathis body fell .

The story tells of how Sati committed suicide unable to bear insult to her husband lord Shiva by her father Dakshin in a yagna and lord Shiva in great anger destroyed Dakshin and his empire by opening his third eye and took satis body on his shoulders dancing the tandava for days .

The decomposing body was a great worry for all devas and lord shivas dance pointed to destruction of all worlds and devas appealed to lord Vishnu to save them .

Vishnu knew Shivas anger will not come down till Satis dead body was removed from him hence he cuts the body to pieces using his chakra and it falls in different parts of India and these places are called Shakti peethams .

These are legends however gruesome they may appear .

Its said that Lord Shiva pleased with prayers of Manchanda gave him one of three shiv lings ,he was told to consecrate it in a place where there are no cremation grounds and Taliparambha was selected and lingha was installed there.

After death of Manchanda the lingha sank into the ground .

His son Muchukunda prayed again ardently was given the second lingha and he too installed it in same spot which with time sank to the ground .

After centuries the third lingha was passed to Sathosoman who was a king of the kolathiri chirakkal dynasty who ruled these parts ..

On advice of sage Agasthya the lingha was installed by the sage himself and it did not sink into sands .

It was considered as a jyothirlingham .

Its said that lord Rama stopped here to pray on his victorious return from Lanka .

Lord Shiva is addressed as Rajarajeswara the emperor of emperors 

Devotees address him as thampuran Perumthirukovilappan .

The other legend is another version which says Parasurama a Vishnu avatar on his wanderings in Kerala which he created from the sea comes to this place full of vibrations and ruined temple asks Naradha about it who says the Devas once take the dust of the sun after reducing its heat by spinning it and mixing the dust with amruth creted three linghas which are offered to Godess Parvathi who gives it to the three kings mentioned who install it here .

Parasurama with help of celestial architect Vishwakarma built this temple .

Inside the temple as one circumambulates which was not allowed when we went due to some reason .

There is said to be a figurine of an yakshi or guardian angel .

In front of the inner temple entrance is the Rishaba or Shivas bull and the huge Balikallu with a lot of carvings .

On circumambulating one prays in directions of kanjirangat appan or lord vaidyanathan in one corner Godess bhadrakali in Madayikaavu in another and Goddess Annapoorneswari in Cherukunnu 

All these three temples were nearby and we had visited them .

I shall shortly write on them too .

In inner temple in front of jyotirlingham is an array of lamps and a bhadradeepam lit by sage Agasthya himself .

The jyotirlingham itself is most of time expect two times in the day one at nirmalyam at 5.30 am later at 9.30 am rest of the time its covered by Trinethram ,Shivas symbol of three eyes crescent moon and naghapaanam 

In the background is a golden prabha and on top a vyalimugham face of a mythical being .

The three doors of sanctum have lord Dakshinamoorthy as a mural on one side lord Ganesha and lord Muruga .

Godess Parvathi is installed too there is a legend here too .

Once Godess Mahalakshmi Vishnus consort comes to Rajarajeswara temple to pray to Lord Shiva who assumes form of Mahavishnu so that Lakshmis prosperity adorns the temple .

Thinking its Vishnu , Lakshmi enters sanctum and stands near Shiva and when lord Shiva assumes his real self she realizes the mistake and attempts to leave but Shiva asks his attendant to close western side door so shes with parvathi till vishnu arrives and takes her home .

In meantime the prosperity associated with Goddess lakshmi is empowered to the temple .

The thanthris of temple belong to four families or manas .

Poonthotathil pudayur mana ,eduvalath pudayur mana ,Eruvesi pudayur mana ,and Naduvath pudayur mana .

During Shivarathri which is most important festival lord Vishnu from Thrichambaram temple nearby is brought here in procession .

Temple is also known for its chakiyar koothu and koodiyattam perfomances .

During Tipus invasion two prominent gopuras were destroyed but before further damage could be done the commander of Tipus army who ordered the destruction of the temple was bit by a poisonous snake and so the destruction did not proceed .

However several Namboothiri families left to Trivandrum at this time .

Steth around necks

 Somehow I dont like Doctors in Talk shows or in profiles in social media with stethoscopes around their neck unless its taken when working .

Picture shown here was when I was in my out patient clinic working 😊

The point is dont use it as a symbol of authority otherwise serving no purpose .

Strangely its more frequent in Ayush doctors for whom stethoscope really  serves not much but as an ornament only .

I see Dentists too at times adorning them making me wonder on toothy auscultations .

Funnily enough Travancore medical council is reviving the ancient archaic law of prohibiting  doctors from advertising thier skills !!

When every quack doing mumbo jumbo practice  projects himself in GOK its social service for genuine doctors to proclaim that they are around too in this  quackland 

I meant Kerala .😂

The problem is Medical councils are inhabited by ancient crustacean vestiges whose mindset lies in prehistory .

They are in suspended animation in the past .

Iam for a qualified doctor telling the world whats hes trained for and what hes good at so that public can make wise choices 

 but

 without a steth around the neck like Lord Shiva with his serpent .

Anatomy of a Goverment office

 The Anatomy of a Goverment office .

To me Goverment offices are familiar since childhood .

My oldest memory as a 6 or 7 year old  school boy playing amongst dusty files of The Home department in The Secretariat of the then Madras State Goverment where my father was the Superintendent .

Of course it wasnt a frequent trip but a rare one or two but I do remember the homely canteen with fresh mixture and filter coffee I was treated with ,and the meticulous notes by my dad in the voluminous files .

His notes in the files were said to be even appreciated by the minister himself ,for thier literary and logical content as in those days Ministers had adequate intelligence and patience to recognise and appreciate such talents of thier employees  unlike now !

By my tenth year my dad left me as a fatherless child with a monthly family pension to my mum which had to be physically collected unlike bank crediting these days .

Though in intial days I went with my mother , the remark of my dads friend once "hey young man why dont you come alone instead of troubling your poor mum ?"

And so it was seen a half short boy stood in line every month amongst octogenarians and gruff pensioners and widows .

When we reached the counter i had to stand on tip toe to sign and get the money and take it home by bus .

Later in my medical college days all in Goverment colleges I was asked to bring my mother on Day one when others had brought thier whole families 😁

During my post graduate admission in Madras medical college I showed my anger at the Deans secretary for making me wait interminably ,by then I had developed a faint distrust on Goverment offices ,but the secretary showed his revenge by complaining to the Dean of the arrogant new PG who felt Dean better see him and NOW .

I got an earful from the said Dean who blasted me and I stared at him thinking you Govt moron 😁 while my eyes filled .

With this bad start I quickly was in bad books of Radiotherapy Asst prof Dr Boopal who felt I was an arrogant guy taking my own time to reach OP and conferred with the Director of radiology and  radiotherapy dept in Bernard institute of Cancer and I promptly got a lecture from him too on humility and a sneering Bhoopal standing on the side .

Bloody Govt wallahs was all what I thought then 😁 .

Strangely Bhoopal sir came to know I had enough reasons  and lack of humility wasnt exactly what I was made of ,and he became not only a good friend but a mentor too ,taking me home and giving me books and wishing me well .

I happened to see Bhoopal sir years later in an oncology conference in Chennai  to laugh over those days 😂 .

I never joined Govt service though I attempted Army medical corps but after the passed interview ,my myopic eyes didnt make the selection !

I still remember the recruiting colonel telling me AMC wasnt so great ,as he knew my uncle was a big officer and so felt I needed some explanations 😁

And later I got selected to Indian Railways and so I was waiting for the final selection and was thinking of all the first class travels across India I found it was not to be so as they just cancelled the whole list that year due to a court case claiming it as not needed 🙄😁 .

And I started my private practice smiling all the way to bank for two decades .

My going to RCC for an observer course was my next Sort of Govt experience .

The Director the famous Dr Krishnan nair Sir didnt encourage me when I met him 

He asked me 

" whats your plans for doing an observership here ?"

" I said Academia Saar "

Somehow I managed to convince him of my not having morbid ulterior motives and I did a stint of two months in RCC .

The best thing happening then was my meeting VPG Sir and developing an instant rapport with him and later my  coming back to oncology by joining VPG sir in Lakeshore hospital in Cochin .

No Govt hospital you see 😁

My stints abroad in Tawam Hospital run hy Johns Hopkins  in Al ain ,UAE and Brunei cancer center in Brunei Darrusalam were premier Govt hospitals but selectively autonomous ,unlike thier Govt hospitals .

 Now back to VPSLH a private one .

But I did visit a lot of Govt offices regarding my house for paying property tax ,corpn tax ,electricity, telephones,  like anyone else and had my share of fights there too 😁

During Shilpa society days I went to Trivandrum on off or to collectorate kakkanad to push files .

I used to wait for long hours at times in their chairs even napping and seeing dreams 😁 .

After a long long time I went yo pay property tax for my apartment in Kakkanad  today .

The Thrikakkara muncipality was in a brand new building but I was stopped in the doorway 

I said in malayalam

"Came to pay tax "

"Give fotostat copy of your bill go home , come back on day we call you ,covid rules you see "

Guy I have seen many like you

"I told him look , I need to see the biggest officer in this building ! "

This technique I used often even in the UAE once and becoming buddy with the biggest Arab in that building in due course.

Something in my voice made him open the  door and point to a lady officer

See her

I went in

Madam I am a doctor and cant come another day implying on how busy we covid warriors were 😐🤨

Madam apologetically took me to a clerk and she got my job done 

Thanks people

For once I liked Govt workers 

I just added a parting shot which I couldnt resist

" Its best these things are online "

"Yes we are on it "

I said 

"You have a new building but still an old mind ! "😁

😁

Chandamamma

 Many in my generation would wait for the monthly tamil Ambilimama in Madras for a feast of mythological stories fairy tales and series Vikram betal .

Later came english version Chandamama and i remember finding a bound collection in a friends house which he lend to me .

In 1952 it was released in malayalam as Ambuliammavan .

It was in 1947 that it was started by film magnate Nagi reddy in Telugu first .

The family owned it till 2007 when they sold it Geodesic who wanted to publish in digitsl form but now its folded up due to litigation .

Sankar was one of its earliest illustrators who worked till recently passed away now .

My fond memories .

Hearts..world heart day

 Today is world hearts day .

Beyond the usual keep your heart healthy adage ,which every other doctor would post, I want to post something different on hearts .

Heart as an organ is just a bundle of muscles ,blood vessels ,and nerves tirelessly ticking away till we cease to exist .

Thats its anatomy and physiology and its medicine part .

Iam familiar with that too .

But beyond that the heart is often thought to be the place where our mind sits ,not the cold calculative mind that deals with logic and steers us in the throes of life ,but the foolishly passionate soul stirring mind that is in love with people with beauty of creation, with nature ,and which suffuses us with pleasure ,never ever explained by science !!

Its that heart which is my topic today .

The heart from which a poet gets his poem, the heart which a singer or actor needs for his song or acting ,to surpass the realms of mundaenity .

The heart that needs no words ,no signs, no symbols ,but passes its message by silence and un interrupted telepathy to its recipient .

A look, a smile ,a crinkling in the corner of our eyes ,as we look at our beloveds

 ( not wives always 😁 ),our children ,

at innocence ,at the spectacle of divinity in nature ,in the rustle of a breeze, in chirping of a bird, in the wake of a wave, is all from this heart .

The moment this heart ceases to manifest its just a muscle bundle that makes you live ,but it never makes you alive !

So while you keep that bundle all healthy do the exercises needed to keep this heart the real one kicking .

The jumba dance you need to keep this heart of love in shape ,is to fall in love over and over again ,not only with people or your loved ones ,but with beauty ,with things ,with time ,with life itself, for the ultimate utopian secret lies in love, and its needed to have a heart for that .

A heart full of love .😍😚

Vadakumnadhan Temple

 Vadakunnathan temple ..Thrissur 

Once again Parasurama ,Vishnus 7th incarnate shines bright here .

When after getting kerala the land where his axe fell he distributed amongst the Nambudhiri families  .

He went to mount Kailas to pray to lord Shiva and requested him to come to kerala .

Its said Shiva and Parvathi , Ganesha and Subramanyan ,came upto Thrissur .

Suddenly they disappeared here and parasurama found a Shiva linga which he consecrated under a banyan tree .

The site of the moolastanam can be seen in the outer precinct of the temple even now .

Later the linga was shifted to a temple built by the  king of Cochin .

The temple was  constructed  around 800 y to 1000 years back as it was built by Perumthachan the divinely ordained carpenter ,who lived around 200 AD .

It was taken over by Calicuts king Zamorin between 1750 to 1762 .

Tipu sultan came here in 1789 though he destroyed many temples its said he left Vadakunnathan alone ,though he used its huge vessels to cook for his army and is said to have even offered a huge brass lamp when he left .

The temple is in top of a hillock in center of Thrissur city whose name comes from Thirusivaperoor the city of Lord Shiva .

The king of Cochin Shaktan thampuran who ruled from 1750 to 1805 drove away the Zamorin and took over the temple and town moving his headqaurters to Thrissur from Cochin .

He also started the famous Thrissur pooram as at that time the Peruvanam pooram was the most famous festival in kerala and once when the elephants from Thrissur reached late they were not allowed to be part of that years pooram !

Hence the king started it in Thrissur as a revenge and peruvanam pooram was over shadowed by Thrissur pooram slowly .

Strangely Vadakunathan temple is only a sort of judge in the great festival and it takes place in the vast grounds around the temple ,the Thekkinkaadu maidanam or teak forest .

The real festival is the competition between Paramekkaavu Bhagavathy temple and Thiruvambady Krishna temple in Thrissur under the benevolent gaze of Vadakunathan .

The Paramekaavu temple is opposite one gopuram of Vadakunathan temple while Thiruvambaady was a little inside 

Today the famous Swaraj circle encircles the Thekinkaad maidan and is the cwnter of Thrissur city itself .

The Thrissur pooram festival goes on for more than 24 hours with small processions of elephants with drummers merging  from smaller temples to Vadakunathan .

The paramekkaavu and Thiruvambady group after praying to vadukunathan occupy thier place in the maidan facing each other showing thier prowess in thier elephants ,decorations ,thier skills in the drum ensembles ,and as night sets in thier fireworks .

The Vadakunathan temple itself has four huge gopurams in each direction .

There is a huge Koothambalam inside the  temple reconstructed around early 19 th century by Velenezhy namboothiri as old one had broken down .

The koothambalam is a hall where temple dances like Nangiar koothu and Chakiyar koothu were held .

The inner sanctum has the Shiva linga one foot in height permanently covered in a mound of ghee and linga cannot be seen only the ghee given as offerings from devotees is seen .

Strangely the ghee never becomes bad and there is no foul smell .

Directly in the back of linga facing opposite side is Parvathy and both deities together represent Ardhanareeswara the personification of both genders .

There is a Sankara Narayana sanctum and one for Rama and Ganapathy in inner sanctum .

In the outer ring one finds Saastha the child of Shiva and Vishnu  ,Nandikeswara ,Gokulakrishna , and 

Shiva as Vettekorappan or as a hunter .

The temple has the magnificient koothambalam with a conical roof in outer ring .

There is a shrine for Adi Sankaracharya too .

Legend says Sankaras parents were childless for long and prayed for long in this temple .

Lord Shiva was pleased with thier penance and appeared before them and offered them a choice of either getting an intelligent great soul but who will die young or a child with all failings but who will live long .

Aryambha Sankaras mother agreed to have the intelligent child and thus Sankara was born with blessings of Vadakunathan himself .

The temple also has lovely murals mostly from Mahabharatha .

The temple was declared as a UNESCO Heritage site by Indian Archeology Dept in 2012 .

Mannarsaala Shethram

Mannarsaala Temple .

On the way to Trivandrum from Ernakulam after Allepey before Kayamkulam 3 km from  Haripad one reached the Mannarssala temple .

It was almost a km inside the NH .

Lord Parasurama the seventh avatar of Vishnu is said to have created Kerala from the sea after he was advised by devas to propitiate by giving land to Brahmins for having committed the sin of killing kshatriyas in anger many times over .

He prays to Lord Varuna who gives him an axe or mazhu to throw into the Arabian sea  and to use the area covered by the axe which would turn into land .

Parasurama does that and mythology states that was kerala .

In the story of the temple after getting the land Parasurama realises it coming from sea is full of salinity and nothing would grow there so no brahmin was keen on staying in that land .

So Parasurama goes into penance again to lord Shiva who appears after long asks him to pray to serpent king Nagaraja to allow the poison from serpents to cleanse the land of ots saltiness .

Parasurama prays for long and Nagaraja who is a melding of Trimurtis appears before him in resplendent glory agrees to send serpents to purify the land making it green fertile and beautiful .

He also says he the Nagaraja himself would have his presence here forever .

After Parasurama entrusted the village and temple to Nagaraja to a brahmin family teaching them the rites and rituals needed .

Many years pass and in the family comes a couple who are sad as they have no children .

Vasuki and Narayanan .

There is a fire in the forest which burns many snakes resident in forest around the temple .

The couple tend to thier wounds using honey ghee other cooling ungents give them medicines and nourishing food with milk puffed rice plantains etc and heal them .

They also pray to Nagaraja who is pleased with them tells them he will be born as thier child and leave them after some time .

The temple still gives noorum paalum as prasad ie rice and milk as offering .

The couple have two children one a five hooded serpent Nagaraja and other a human child .

Both grow up together .

After becoming adults Nagaraja asks his brother to marry to continue the family as he would go into permanent meditation fpr the welfare of his subjects .

He asks his mother to do the poojas and rituals and after her time the eldest lady in family would do so .

This ritual still continues .

The woman priest is revered as Amma or mother and Nagaraja as Appoopan or grandfather who is inside a room in the temple .

This is an example of female superiority in kerala temples .

Most activists protesting on Sabarimalas age restriction in women know nothing of temples where prirority is given to women .

Many of the female activists are not aware how much importance keralas ancient society gave to women even in carrying on legacy and property of family in marumakathayam .

The same sacred family still runs the affairs of the temple as a trust based on documents and instructions of velliya amma or big mother .

Parasurama had adviced his subjects to nurture and care for forests and sacred groves not to harm serpents .

Uruli kamuthal or keeping bronze cooking  vessel upside down for childless couples will grace them with children .

Among the important functions is Mahasivarathri since the temple and family is associated with the Lord adorned with serpents .

Its said once Vasuki walked upto a tree a km away blowing all sand creating a pond caled karoli its said he repeats this walk every sivarathri to see his creation .

The second important function is the Ayilyam of Kanni which is the birthday of Nagaraja the Muthassan .

Every year the Maharaja of Travancore would unfailingly attend this function ,once he could come only in Thulam but made it up by creating a very grand festival celebrated still .

After this Aayilyam of Thulaam is celebrated .

On day next to Sivarathri the big mother opens the cellar to offer nurumpalum and on fifth day its given as prasadam to the family members .

On Sivarathri there is sarpabali and ezhunellathu .

For sarpabali family members grind rice for offering and this is on Sivarathri due to attachment the Mannarsaala family has to sarpabushana or one who carries serpents on him .

The Sarpam pattu is once in 42 years only .

It needs great preparation and manpower with seven virgin girls along with amma and veliya amma sing songs lasting for many days till the velliya amma gets into a trance and tells if Nagaraja is satisfied and also fortells future .

Many pictures posted here are from temple website .if objected can be removed

Rest pictures are mine