Perinchellore was an old town famous for its scholarly Brahmans who were very good in the knowledge of Vedas, grammar, literature, astrology, medicine etc.. Scholars from all over came to Perinchellore to debate with the Brahmans there to test their own erudition. One such family in Perinchellore was Rayaramangalam. It so happened with them that the latest generation had no male heirs to continue their family lineage. They prayed to their family goddess by offering special Puja. Soon they got a daughter but not a son. Sensing a divine intervention the parents accepted her gratefully and named DeviKanya. They brought her up giving her the best they had including education.
The girl grew up to be a scholar, naturally, and her erudition spread among the scholarly circle of the area in spite of being a girl. It was the custom at that time for the Brahman girls to be married off at the age of 12. Devi's parents proposed her the marriage and she agreed but on one condition. She will marry the man who will defeat her in a scholarly debate. Her parents had to agree and the marriage day was fixed.
Many scholars came from far and wide both young and old. For two days nobody could defeat Devi. This was a blow to the Scholars of Perinchellore to be defeated and that too by a girl. For her parents she was a divine child but for others she was a mere girl who has to be shown her place in the world. So on the third day they deliberately guided the debate to the topic of Rasas which are the human feelings. They asked her which is the most significant of the Rasas to which Devi correctly replied as Sringara or erotic love. Then the scholars asked which is the most painful of the Rasas. Devi had no hesitation in saying it is the pain of child birth experienced by women.
The Brahman scholars were enraged. They asked how can a virgin know all these feelings without experiencing it. They felt she is not a kanya (Virgin) and proclaimed the punishment due to such a woman for the innocent Devi. She was outclassed and expelled from the community.
Though heartbroken, her parents could not do anything against the decision of the community. Devi walked away from her house, her village and went straight to the temple at EachiKulangara and entered into a deep meditative prayer of forty days. At the end of it she woke up with the realization that she had to leave her body to prove her innocence. At the Brahma Muhurtham, that is thirty six minutes before sun rise she prayed her final prayer and went to a place called Karivellore and made herself a pyre and jumped into the fire after taking off one of her anklet and leaving it near the pyre.
Alas! The fire was not enough to burn her body completely as it lost its flame midway. After a while a coconut tree climber from the lower caste was passing by carrying some dry fronds and Devi called out to him asking him to put the dry palm leaves into her fire. The man was frightened by the terrific site, he ran away without looking back.
Next came that way a man from the Muchilottu community. Another lower caste community who deal in oil which was more important than electricity in those days. Devi asked him to pour the oil that he was carrying in a pot into her pyre. Though terrified the man sensed a certain divinity in the stoic Devi and poured oil into the fire hoping it would put off the fire. Instead the fire was set ablaze again and the Devi disappeared into it after blessing him. From then on the Devi has been deified as the Goddess of the Muchillottu community and celebrated as Theyyam every year to this day.
No comments:
Post a Comment