THEYYAMS OF MALABAR – MY EXPERIENCES – 9

 

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.

Thiruvappan (Vishnu) & Vellattam (Shiva) at madappura

I didn’t know a thing about the history of Sree Parassinikkadavu Muthappan but the

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.

Listening to everyone's woes.....

Soon after, I knew about the details of Sree Muthappan and realised how naïve I had been!

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.

Parassinikadavu Madappura as of now.

On my first visit in 1997, I was more intrigued by the broken bridge across Valapattanam River prior to its inauguration whereas on my last in 2017 I was impressed by the waste-disposal system, general cleanliness and the wood-fired boiler at the kitchen.

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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