Since we did a puja on the eighth day after Grace’s death on the New Moon of Friday June 11th, it was ordained by local customs not to perform a sixteenth day observance as is usual. Instead, we were told to skip a week and have the annadānam or feeding of friends and well wishers and anyone who wants to come on the twenty first day. I decided to go through a fire ceremony and head shaving. I am not sure what the head shaving signifies, analytically speaking, except that the youngest son does it for the father’s death and the eldest son for the mother’s. Head shaving, or the tonsorial vow is big in Tamilnadu and we regularly see tourists who have visited the temple in Palani (where I used to live in the mid sixties) going around with their heads shaved and smeared with sandal wood paste. It blends right in of course with the skin head fashion in western males so it probably looks to a foreign visitor as if these folks are cool guys. But going bald is more a cultural style going back thousands of years to the time of the renunciate sramana and bhikshu.
In modern Hinduism sadhus elect whether to shave their heads completely once a month or let hair and beard go, even so, the latter always begins with a full shave, a sign of renunciation of ego, I guess, whatever this means. In a death in the family one of the sons or nephews (who are considered sons) shaves his head on the day of the funeral. Since I did not go through this I made up for it on this day of the annadānam. Needless to say I did not have much part in organising the local traditions except to express a wish to visit Velappan Muruga temple in picturesque Poomparai in the upper hills.
This temple dates back quite a few centuries when the Tamil Poet Arunagiri sang a song in praise of the local deity. He must have walked up from Palani through the jungles back then in the sixteenth century for there were no roads here in those ancient days. Kodaikanal town itself is a new settlement from the nineteenth century built on a former swamp but the several large villages surrounding it are thousands of years older since these hills have been clocked by archaeology at a human habitation of at least 1000 BC, and yes we have dolmens all around. There is a way to date by rock varnish, by the way, apparently exposed rock accumulates a patina in the atmosphere and so you can tell roughly when inscriptions were chipped into the face of a stone. They’ve traced aboriginal culture back tens of thousands of years, and the Tamil language likewise connecting Africa and Australia genetically and linguistically.
Before visiting Velappan temple I would have my head shaved by Sneha and Raj’s father, Jayraj: (you can see Murugesh holding my head steady) and afterwards take a bath in the woods. This is what pilgrims in Palani did, wrapped in a thin towel they’d take a dip in the nearby river. As usual the performance artist in me is psyched by ceremony and I was ready to take a freezing dip, leeches and all (you can see the pujari inspecting the dark water hole) but instead of a bath down below I bomb out. It was decided by friends I would do better with a bucket of some of the hot water the lady from the government herb nursery nearby had heating under firewood in a giant urn. It was about eight in the morning and refreshingly brisk outside with gusts of wind and splashes of last night’s rain descending from the huge pine forest overhead. While I got my shave and bathed from a bucket our pujari descended the mud ledge through the bracken to the little embankment and prepared a sacred fire or yagñam with all sorts of special twigs and spices to place in the fire. Chanting in Sanskrit he adorned my pate with sandalwood paste and I donned a turmeric yellow sacred thread which afterwards also went into the fire. It was good, my first fire ceremony just for me and Grace, of course. I made sure no plastic or paper items were left behind in this lovely bucolic setting of pines and cows grazing nearby in the meadow.
Reaching Poomparai we performed a big abhisheka in the temple for Muruga—God in the form of a valiant teenager, no photos of the inside puja which was quite impressive but here is a pic of the colourful gopuram (all the photos by Rajkumar’s nephew, Prakash) and our little group sitting on the steps all holy afterwards.
There is a picture of another temple in the fields of potatoes to give one a sense of the countryside in the upper hills.
Tradition requires local ceremonies to be performed half naked, a sign of humility, nowadays in a more self conscious urbanised age many men keep on their tank top (banyans) undershirts for this which looks even worse, I think, so though I am no longer the trim guy I once was I let it all hang out anyway. Back home I am told I must wear a silken turban as per custom … and Mum has more showing of the light puja performed for her in her bedroom, many people taking a turn at holding up the grail of camphor to her like she is a god; all very rootsy and she seems to be laughing through it. People began arriving and as our friend Padmini said she was thrilled to see people of all social backgrounds in attendance, some of us sitting on the floor with our banana leaf plates and others at the table. Friends came from Bodinayakanur and from Theni where I lived in the seventies. A hired cook made the rice and veg and dhal and such outside under firewood. He prepared for about fifty people and we fed close to a hundred. Ah, a miracle! Thanks Grace!
Quite a few pics were taken by Prakash; here is a close up of Pakkiyam and Velan (the kids’ mum) in the dining room. Assorted shots of myself or Rajkumar with friends; Mary, busy as always but finally having some lunch out of a stainless steel pot while having her picture taken. Here is a photo of Sarasu whose husband Pandisamy used to visit me when I lived in the cave above Bodi. She is with her grandson she raised and her great grandson. Here is a pic of Samikannu at the table from the village Koduvilarpatti I lived in near Theni whose boys we have been helping (first generation) through college. A good jolly time was had by all. Thank you miracle Mum for your good vibrations as always!
I like my shaved head now that the fuzz is appearing. I am thinking of keeping it short and growing back my beard like a wrestler. Raj approves since he was (at one time) into WW mania.
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