MUTHAPPAN – THE REBEL GOD
If you happen to visit relatives or friends in Kannur district, irrespective of their political leanings they feel insulted if you don’t pay a respectful appearance before Parassinikkadavu Muthappan, settled 16 km away from the city! Such is the organic bonding between the people and the Rebel God.
This does not mean that the Muthappan
deity is installed only at that place. The Hunter God is worshipped at
several places in Kannur, Kozhikkode, Kasargod, Malappuram and even at Kudaku
(Coorg), Karnataka. The far-end railway platform belonging to main stations of
Malabar boast of the conspicuous presence of Railway Muthappan in its
immediate vicinity. However, Parassinikkadavu
is the original abode of Sree Muthappan where the ritual of Theyyam is
performed every day throughout the year. He selected the place on His own! The
most astounding thing about Sree Muthappan is that He is the unified
form of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva!
He is the God of common
people. Muthappan organised the poor and the downtrodden against the
hegemony of the feudalistic rulers and tantriks.
Though the theyyam is
performed by Vannan community as is customary, the puja is always carried
out by the backward community Thiyyas (Ezhavas of Malabar) at Muthappan
temples. They are not called temples but by a special name “Madappura”.
Anybody is welcome there,
belonging to any caste, religion, creed or nationality.
There is no dress-code
whatsoever.
I first visited Parassinikkadavu
alongwith my family in January 1997. We were staying in a hotel but my wife and
son missed the theyyam performance which would start at five every
morning. I reached there in time. A large crowd had already gathered and there
was no place to sit. The kuzhal players started playing and the
percussion too was on a soft note. Normally the accompaniment of any other theyyam
was likely to keep you on tenterhooks!
There were many dogs straying
around in a disciplined way and nobody was getting annoyed!
There was a family belonging
to the Thiyya community who was bestowed with managership of the temple
and the Karanavar (eldest male member of the household) took the lead in
rituals.
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| Thiruvappan (Vishnu) & Vellattam (Shiva) at madappura |
ambience of the place was ethereal.
I only wished if the high-roof made of certain translucent material were
absent. It stood like a block between the
early morning sky and the madappura.
The main Theyyam,
short and fat and His sidekick, tall and lean. The main one was blindfolded
prior to the performance. He was guided by his ‘assistant’ who would be
slightly humourous at times. He had a bow and arrow and would gesture like
piercing the ears of his ‘master’ (with the arrow) if He was not appreciative
enough to the music. The musicians would play exclusively for Him and an
encouraging nod was assured! I liked it immensely. At last, a Theyyam
with an ear for music!
And they sipped fresh toddy at regular intervals in
tiny tumblers with in-built stems !
Towards the end, the session
with the devotees began as usual and everybody approached them with their
personal woes! Of course, each grievance was taken care of.
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| Listening to everyone's woes..... |
As said earlier, Sree
Muthapan is the personification of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. When
performing, they are named Thiruvappan (the Vishnu part, the main,
blind-folded one) and Vellattam (the Shiva part, the alter-ego).
The offerings to Sree Muthappan
are toddy and burnt flesh-fish. There is a story behind this strange eating
habit too.
The Naduvazhi (Ruler)
of Eruvessi, Kannur was childless. Ayyankara Devan Namboodiri,
that was his name and wife, Padikkutty Antarjanam. She made a sacrifice
to Lord Shiva for a child. Next morning, on her way-back from river after bath,
she saw a baby-boy lying on a rock. She took the child home and reared it as
their own. However, he was not inclined to follow the rigid customs of a
brahmin household! The boy went out and mingled with commoners. He also had a
penchant for hunting. Dogs became his trusted lieutenants and the animals
collected by the hunting boy were freely distributed among the poor.
Naturally, Devan Namboodiri
got annoyed and admonished his foster son.
Instantly, a fire broke out at
the compound wall which had the padippura as the main
entrance. Obviously, the young
boy was angry. He slowly turned his head towards the Naduvazhi and his
wife sensed trouble ahead. It was a matter of her husband’s life. Just to
prevent his imminent death, she forced her hands over the boy’s eyes.
The Thiruvappan is
blind-folded with silver eye-shields just to represent this incident.
He left the ‘mana’ in a
moment’s notice like a true rebel. Is that a rebellion of sorts?
Not yet. Just listen to the
rest of the story.
He reached at a very beautiful
place called Kunnathoor and made it his temporary residence. He used to
climb palm trees and had a fill of toddy whenever he felt like! The toddy
actually belonged to toddy-tappers who put in a lot of hard work for its
production. Enraged by the pilferage of toddy, Chandaan, an illiterate
toddy-tapper decided to keep a vigil at night. He saw the guy on top merrily
drinking away the toddy! Before getting time to react, he fell unconscious. Chandaan’s
wife came searching and had a rough idea of the happenings seeing toddy-drinker
and the tapper.
“Muthappan, have mercy
on us”, she pleaded. (Needless to say, the name stuck.
In Malayalam “Muthappan” means
grandpa.)
She presented Muthappan with baked gram, slices of
coconut, burnt fish and toddy as an offering.
The prasad of Sree
Muthappan still have the same fare except for the fish and toddy.
(Nobody can deny that
well-made tea is an excellent substitute. Moreover, Annadanam (hot and
tasty lunch and dinner) is also provided to all devotees who come to the madappura.)
Muthappan decided
to relocate from Kunnathoor and he set out an arrow skywards and it struck
on a tree at Parassinikkadavu.
Meanwhile, He was rebelling
against the ruling elite. The barn houses were raided and the hoarded grains
were confiscated and freely distributed. He even crossed swords with the King
of Aawa.
Interestingly, on His way to Parassinikkadavu,
at a place called Puralimala, he met a young chap whom he fondly called
“Cherukkan” (the young one). Cherukkan became his alter-ego, the Vellattam.
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| Parassinikadavu Madappura as of now. |
However, my unique memory is
of witnessing the pre-dawn performance of Thiruvappan and Vellattam
in 1997 which I shall carry till the end.
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