Guruvayur, Thrissur and Kochi

It has been a long struggle with writer's block...

Guruvayur:
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When did I first worship at Guruvayur? Perhaps seventy years back, maybe seventy one; may be even earlier than that as a toddler but I really don't know. What I am about to relate is my first remembered visit; I went with Father...

I was in First Grade. It was March-April, summer. I still remember my bare feet getting scorched by the hot ground...

Our home is five kilometers due east from Guruvayur temple - but that's modern geography. In those days, it was more complicated - leaving home, you pass an areca plantation, then walk along an elevated bund across an extensive rice field, then come narrow village trails winding past coconut groves... -it was "six miles" to Manjalaal (a pipal tree that marks the eastern limit of the temple area, it is now also called 'Manjulaal'; the gateway to the temple proper is several hundred meters from here)...

Before setting out, we bathed and put on freshly washed clothes, Father and I... but after the lengthy trek, another purifying bath was needed so approaching Manjalaal, we took a dip at another pond.

We passed Manjalaal and went ahead some more and then there was another pipal tree (it isn't there now) and right next is the temple of the Chovan caste - that is us, true blue Ezhavas, Chovans!

A short wall, an open ground, a little building, three-tiered granite lamp pillar in front, that's all there is to the Chovan temple (the temple is long gone, the lamp pillar too isn't there anymore, only stumps from a protective fence around it remain)...

We entered, Father prayed for my eyes - fresh into school with lots to read, wasn't I - and made some offerings, received 'prasadam'. He held my hand as we stepped out, then gently made me turn westwards and said: "Out there is the Guruvayur temple! Fold your hands and pray, son. And look, that bright lamp burning yonder - that is Lord Guruvayurappan (Krishna)!"

I looked hard, could see no light. We started back. Midday. My feet were burning.... Father hoisted me onto his shoulders... I dunno if his feet were singed, didn't ask....
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That was Kovilan (1923-2010) recreating c 1928-'30. Translated from Malayalam with some edits. Guruvayur temple was thrown open to all Hindus after Independence.

I was at Guruvayur myself to attend a wedding. The ceremony having gotten over, I went to look for the 'Chovan temple'. Did the Manjalaal-temple stretch twice. Saw this overgrown plot. Is it it?


And I counted 2 pipal trees between Manjalaal and the temple. So...?
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And then, this has happened...
(Note added on October 16th 2019; a few lines culled from an online newspaper report of September 24th, 2019):

Guruvayur: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan paid a visit to the Guruvayur temple for the first time in his life. He took a glance at the sreekovil (the inner sanctum; Accompanying pics show that Pinarayi saw the sreekovil through the temple gateway: he didn't enter the temple proper)...Delighted on seeing the spectacular lights in there, the chief minister asked ‘’is that the abode of Sri krishna?’’
source: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/kerala/cm-s-first-visit-to-guruvayur-sri-krishna-temple-1.4142516
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Thrissur:

Over several decades and scores of visits, I have seen Thrissur grow from a smallish town with a nice central maidan and more than its share of temples, colleges and jewellers to the hub of a sprawling urban agglomeration (and it has grown better than many other places in Kerala - at least the traffic is largely jam-free). For various reasons, there remain pockets of this city that I have never visited or last saw as a primary schooler. So, when an opportunity came my way a few weeks back, I went walkabout...

Over a one kilometer stretch, Thrissur has 4 museums - and despite some traces of specialization, all of them are general catch-all establishments and each has at least a few genuinely interesting exhibits. 3 out of the 4 stand on the same leafy road and out of these, two are located in the very same zoo-museum compound - the third is the former 'Kollengode kottaram' in an adjacent compound. You need to buy separate tickets to see each museum - and curiously, one of them is so deep within the zoo complex that you also need to buy a ticket to the zoo as well to even approach it!

The zoo is, as I had anticipated, a pretty sad affair. In a rushed walk-thru, I saw a cage with a dozen droopy Brahmini kites and another with over half dozen even droopier fish owls. Then there are cages with ostriches - they look at you and seem to perpetually say "yap-yap-yap" - emus, pelicans (another curiosity: it is written here that the pelicans live 50 years and every other bird species on display have lifespans ranging from 10 to 15 years).

Photography is banned inside all the museums so I was mostly trying to match what I was seeing with childhood remembrances. The Zoo museum still has a complete elephant skeleton that had left me in awe as a six year old. It now looks awfully depressing especially after I read the accompanying text: this is what is left of the famous bull elephant Chengalloor Ranganathan. He was brought from Tamil Nadu as a young tusker - he had been property of the Srirangam temple and had outgrown the gateway to the temple so they had no use for him and someone from Kerala went and bought him off - and during the short period 1905-1917, he was the star attraction at all major temple festivals in central Kerala. He was a gentle giant and never harmed anyone.... And he must have been still very young (well under 40) when he died and his bones have been on display for a century and counting...

Then there is a big wooden model of the famous 'tramway' - a lumber train that used to run deep into the Vettilappara forest from Chalakudi and of which no trace has remained at least for 4 decades - and ceremonial dresses worn by the kings of Cochin and the skeleton of a king cobra and so on...

The Kollengode palace compound wall has many reliefs executed by promising artists depicting various legendary and historical episodes. Here is St. Thomas performing the miracle of 'non-falling water':


And here is another tribute to the old tramway.

Inside, there are competently done copies of the famous Ramayana murals in the Mattanchery palace - including the somewhat infamous 'Nativity' scene. But what really catches the eye are the captions: "Rama assassinates Bali", "Rama Murders Tataka" and so forth. And there is a section on magic and black magic. Here is a magic symbol that could ward off the effect of bewitched food ('kaivisham').

This design (I hastily copied it) has to be drawn onto a betel leaf which has then to be rolled into a nice paan and the kaivisham victim has to chew it.


Not far from the museums, in a corner of the compound of the Fine Arts college I spotted a heap of debris and junk. Here is a glimpse...


The 'Ilathalam' is an integral part of all Keralan temple music ensembles such as Panchavadyam, Panchari... The name of the instrument, literally 'leaf rhythm instrument', derives from its structure - cymbals consisting of two thin metal disks (leaves). Somewhere in Thrissur, I saw the ad for a summer school on the ilathalam. The name of the school was 'Dalamarmaram' literally 'rustle of leaves'. While the name is lyrical, the sound produced by the ilathalam is anything but a rustle - it is by far the loudest and in some sense the harshest-sounding of our rich gallery of percussion instruments.

Kochi:

Let me quote with edits a bit from 'Anayatha Deepangal' by popular historian Velayudhan Panikkasseri:
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The 'Hortus Malabaricus' is not only the most detailed scholarly account ever of the flora of Kerala but a great classic that stands as the fountainhead of modern Botany itself ... Even the great Carl Linneus was inspired by this masterwork. Trees, shrubs, climbers, grasses, herbs - the massive 12-volumed 'Hortus' lists, illustrates and describes 740 plants in Latin, Arabic, Konkani and Malayalam......Its author, Keralan physician and scholar Itti Achuthan ought to be considered a Father of modern botany....

Hendrik van Rheede, the Dutch Governor of Cochin during 1673-77 initiated the compilation of Hortus as a major project. Consulting ancient treatises on Ayurveda and herbal medicine and drawing on his own extensive fieldwork, Achuthan prepared the first draft in Malayalam. Since he also knew Portuguese, he collaborated with Immanuel Carneiro, the 'dubash' at the Portuguese station in Cochin, in the preparation of a Portuguese translation. Later, translations into Latin were made.

van Rheede had also appointed Ranga Bhat, Vinayak Pandit and Appu Bhat, 3 Konkani Brahmin physicians, as assistants to Achuthan. Their work included supplying Achuthan with information on trees and herbs and preparation of the descriptive text in Nagari script. Brother Mathews, another assistant, worked on the Arabic version of the text.

Itti Achuthan also wrote a dated and signed testimonial in the then Malayalam script affirming his position as author ... therein he states that was to "ensure that no other Malabari physician need doubt that he himself has conveyed the relevant scientific information to Immanuel Carneiro".
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Right in front of the Tirumala Devaswam temple in the heart of the Konkani quarter of old Kochi, I saw this monument:



Three portrait busts sit facing away from each other at odd angles on a square pedestal. On three sides the names: "Ranga Bhat, Vinayak Pandit, Appu Bhat" are inscribed - the order of names is the same on all sides so one can't figure out which face is whose.

On the pedestal is the following description in English:
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"Hortus Indicus Malabaricus was a 17th century project initiated by Hendrik van Rheede....Ranga Bhat Vinayak Pandit and Appu Bhat, Konkani physicians of Kochi were the principal contributors in the making of 'Hortus Indicus Malabaricus'. A (dated) testimonial written in Konkani language and signed by the trio and reproduced in the first volume of the work affirms their tremendous efforts.
Other noted contributors were Itti Achuthan and Brother Mathews...."
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The Konkani testimonial is also reproduced on the pedestal. I don't have much of the language but the content appears to closely follow Achuthan's Malayalam document.

One wonders "Let's leave aside the question of who assisted who. But could this monument not could have been of the Asokan Pillar kind - the three Pandits and Achuthan facing four directions? That would have been a nice gesture of Konkani-Kerala integration; and it would also have matched the pedestal!"

And then, one reasons: "Indeed, Achuthan would have had to be represented in the traditional Ezhava coiffure - called 'chakkara kuduma' by P K Balakrishnan. Then he would stand out from the group and be readily identified. But that would cause difficulties for the three Konkani Brahmin scholars who would still have remained anonymous - among themselves! Since all four can't be treated equally, the odd one was excluded, perhaps!".... And finally, where is old Dutchman van Rheede?

Not far from Tirumala temple is the Malayali 'Palliyara Kavu' temple. At the beginning of the galli leading to the temple is a Tamil-ish gateway flanked by sculptures of female guards. Here is one:



How could she - okay, she has fangs - possibly wield that heavy mace, her only weapon?

Flanking the main gateway of the temple are a somewhat different pair of - again female - guards. I have never seen their like.