Meet us along with Lord Navaladiyan, the protagonist of the story that I am presenting you this time.
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Spoiler Alert: if you’re a believer in certain ideology/beliefs and would find yourself be disturbed to accept others the way they are, if you’re a vegetarian averse to non-vegetarian rituals, I request you to move away. I am also aware certain section of people are ‘interested’ in your caste and get ‘clues’ from your customs. I deliberately want them to be disillusioned by discussing this subject in detail. Don’t ask whether I am a believer or an atheist, let me remain just a storyteller.
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Navaladian is one of the Avatars of our gods “Karuppannaswami”. A Karruppannaswami, an iyyernar or Muniyappan are believed to be the gods that stand and save our borders against evil forces. Some call it “Siru Deivangal”(small gods), ironically they are not, they are giants. You can see them with big build, a big mustache and the biggest of the swords. Some carry guns as well. They are basically hunters, accompanied by a dog or a horse that would help them hunt down the evils. They eat anything a hunter would eat, primarily non-veg in its most possible raw form. For example, we sacrifice cocks and sheep to them along with Pongal (Not the sweet Pongal, it is the sweet-less Pongal that you make by over-boiling the rice and making it in the Pongal form) and mix it with raw blood and do a Pooja where we would also offer a peg of liquor. A peg may be an understatement, it indeed is large (or full however you call it). Of all the liquor he is believed to prefer, “Patta Sarayam”. Again, The liquor in its most raw form. These gods are none but our own men, only a little exaggerated. But the theme is that they would be with us to save us, they would go any extreme to save our families, the family groups, or the villages in general.
Navaladian is one of them that stays in Cauvery riverbed. By virtue of being under “Naval” Tree he gained this name, As I remember from one of my ancestors. The temple built around him is about 500-1000 years old and is in Mohanur, Namakkal District, Tamilnadu. It takes a 60Kms drive from my place. Turning back my clock 25 years back, I would go to this temple along with my relatives who were mostly lower middle-class families, by hiring a tempo-traveler which is typically a goods carrier vehicle. Not that there were no buses, we found this was the most convenient, less budget travels, which would also let us load it with our utensils to cook and to board the lambs and cocks we were going to offer. Smell of the stained goat skin, cock feather and its faeces remain in my memories.
Usually we plan to reach there an early Sunday morning. We would reach there, settle down on one of the corners to make our firewood stove and keep our other stuff along with many other family groups that would come there from different places but would follow similar practices. The other side of the temple had a handful “Ural” and “Ammikkal” (Manual Grinding machines) which women would timeshare to make food for the families and would make friends in the process. They shared firewood, they offered Arivalmanais (custom-made knife-like utility for women), they exchanged cooking methods, they spoke gossips and they even ended up finding pairs for their offspring. To say the point, even in the male chauvinistic world, women remained/remains the fulcrum of our families.
People had their ways to provide their offerings. If you go now you can be attracted towards a car custom made in size of a big size TV, that would mean someone wanted to buy a car and once that dream is fulfilled they would come and offer this to this temple. Similarly, there were miniatures of houses and babies. (I think, I remember this was predominant in Velankanni as well, where I was surprised by the spectrum of offerings. Different religions - same emotions!). People also write letters to Navaladiyan. Their miseries, grieves, desires all they would write and hang it in the naval tree in an eternal hope that the horse-riding Navaladiyan will help them get over it.
Those that offered lambs or cocks had a procedure as well. They would bath them and wait for their consent before butchering them. Another common ritual is when the lord himself would come down on the pujari while doing the Pooja and would drink the blood of the cock or sheep right from its neck. (I understand in some places they offer ox or pig, but the story remains the same). We would the burn the liver (A lamb liver) in firewood and give it as a prasadam (Yes!!) to our families. The liquor that was presented to god also is treated as prasadam and apparently in some places even women would have a peg of it. When the Poojas happen in midnight all people would leave the pujari in isolation to finish feeding the food to the lord. The pujari would take off his cloths, stand naked right in front of the deity, throw the rice soaked in blood in the air, and would walk away without turning back. The belief is that the rice wouldn’t come down.
If I can group all these practices under one word, it would be a “Keda Virundhu” (A goat feast). The underlying theme is the same. I have a certain prayer and if my lord saves me from the evils that would come on the way, I ll do this pooja to my make him happy and offer to host my relatives to celebrate it. The food that we prepare for our guests is very very unique and that is where the cult lies. Morning we would prepare idly with “Kodal kari” (lamb intestine curry) which allegedly is the best of the combination for idly in our cuisine and afternoon it will be a banana leaf meal with Mutton, chicken dries, curries and boiled egg. (Make a note, this menu is what you can expect in any “Keda virundhu” if you visit the people of Salem region). Some of our Mamas, Periyappas and Chitappas would go have some “Sarakku”(Liquor) to round off this celebration. Since Navaladiyan stayed in a riverbed, we would go to have a swim in the afternoon and believed Mother Cauvery would wash all our sins away.
On our way back, in the evening, we would carry the remaining food in the same tempo traveller. Now, it is a different smell. You would see the people are all exhausted having been under hot sun all day and afternoon swim would have tired their body out and they would want to go and sleep off. We would stop the vehicle somewhere in the middle and have our dinner (Rasam rice was the most preferred option) and part our ways. Sometimes we did a 'Drishti' (with a lemon or with a coconut that has camphor burning on it) for the whole vehicle to stay away from the wicked eyes. The host and guests would sleep in satisfaction that having visited Navaladiyan and praying him heartfully they would begin a new chapter of hopes for the rest of their life.
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Last Sunday, I along with my family visited there by driving my car all the way. My sons are of the same age as I mentioned myself above. I am sure we would visit this place more in future and that would create a different memory for them about the same place. But I would go on record saying, the car journey was not as joyful as the tempo traveler one.
