Neduva pisharyikkal

 

Parappanangadi is my maternal native village .

Its situated in Malappuram Dt .

Near our Grandparents house Thekkepat Kovilakam which no longer exists now  is Neduva  Pisharikkiyyil Temple .

Its about 500 years old ,a Bhagawathi (Durga ) temple with mookambika as deity .

In 1970 the local Parappanad Raja whose family owned the temple handed it over to a local commitee of Devotees who still manage it so efficiently .

Thankfully the Goverment hasnt put its filthy hands on it through the Dewaswom .

My stay in my ancestral vilage was mainly during my school summer holidays .

The temples deity we knew was our family deity and we prayed to her on every important occasion .

It was routine for most ladies specially older women to visit temple both morning and evening .

For evening deeparadhana most young girls women and men of all ages came here most of the days .

The temple was resplendent with lights .

I remember my grandmother would never miss her twice daily visits ,on way back she would give us the very tasty prasad called Thrimadhuram which was Jaggery Coconut honey Ghee Sugar granules and banana given on a very ecological jackfruit tree leaf .

Navarathri was the main festival in this temple .

There will be plenty of programmes like traditional drum ensembles ,temple dances, story telling ,classical music .etc .

Every day the expenses would be borne by one family of the area and usually on the  penultimate day on Mahanawami it fell on our family the Valliyil family .

Family members would try to visit temple on that day to attend the pujas a sort of reunion  as they met family and friends .

Those who could not come would  send thier share as offerings and pujas from wherever they are .

My mother would buy silk cloth  get it stiched and send it by parcel for navarathri every year .

My sister does it these days .

These days its easier by online transactions to temple commitee .

I remember my mother used to keep special cash offerings during any domestic crisis to be given during next visit to the temple in the strong faith the Godess will give solutions .

Those days all  people may not have great spiritual knowledge or mantra tribulations but posessed simple direct and  implicit faith .

Most of my summer holidays were spent playing in or around the temple 

Amongst my closest friends in Parappanangadi other than my cousins were the sons of the temple priest who was a Tulu brahmin from Mangalore side who was called  imbraasan  .

His son too would become the temple priest later 

For years we did see our old imbrasaan who in his typical style of talking would ask all about us ,as he had seen me playing as a small boy .

The temple had a lovely pond where most of parappanangadi would have had thier bath ,most children learned swimming and diving into it and during monsoon it would fill to the brim and overflow .

During summer when water level was low the commitee would decide for annual cleaning ,a big community affair where young men would stand in the mud plunging in buckets to remove them and pour on sides .

They would catch big fishes with bare hands as they swished in the muds .

It would be smoked with tapioca and black coffee in the fields after thier exhausting work deep into the night .

The monsoon would soon fill the pond with clear water, full of fishes again .

The two big banyan trees not only gave shade in days, in the evenings it was a meeting place for elders and middle aged men  who would discuss global events and walk off shining thier long Dubai torches brought as a gift by some relative or thier sons or son in laws ,of course they had an umbrella too .

Late into the night youngsters would laugh  stealing a smoke and thier laughter could be heard in the dark quiet nights of a village .

Some would even sleep off in the breeze .

Electricity came in the late seventies I think till then it was oil lamps and petromaxes and glow of lamps in temple .

The rains would beat hard on its roofs as circumambulating lasses gave stolen glances at thier beloved around .

This year as it was under strict Covid restrictions no festivities were planned ,but temple is open with all precautions to be taken .

So with masks and social distancing we visited the temple today evening, lit lamps walked around, prayed, saw the temple tank and returned .

Day of nostalgic spirituality .

 #devitemple #neduvapisharikiyiltemple #keralatemples #devitemple