Karkkidaka Masam(month) and its speciality and vavubali (pitrutarpanam)

July 20, 2008

Namasthe

Dear friends Herewith I add some details about Karkkidaka month specialities and Karkkidaka vavu . some of our friends may be dont know this . So this is for them.( some of my friends send me mail to give some brief details about this.)

The Month(masam) of karkidakam Its changing traditions

Long ago, and far away, for the farming community of rural Kerala, the month of karkkidakam with its torrential rains was a period of confinement and forced rest. While rains nourished the tender paddy in the fields, the people took care of their houses and themselves. As Mother Nature began her cleaning spree the women folk followed her habit. From among the plants they gathered leaves that served like wet sandpaper and cleaned the dirt from doors and windows, ritual objects and low wooden stool, their only furniture. And the wooden things gleamed in its natural grains. For, painting and varnishing was unheard of among rustic folk. Most of the houses had thatched roofs; only the rich lived in tiled ones. Karkkidakam was the month of sacred rituals, ancestral worship and healthcare. Women and children gathered the customary herbs associated with worship in temples and herbal medicine. It was a practical lesson too. One learned to identify the herbs while hearing stories connected with their beneficial use as home remedies. Ancient wisdom was handed over by word of mouth from time immemorial. On the evening prior to the samkramam there was a ritual ceremony of packing the Chetta, the presiding spirit over dirt, off. Women with broom went around cleaning and dusting and driving out the Dirty thing that hid in corners. Basically, it was a thorough cleansing before the twilight. For children, the ritual meant a serious part of life. In olden times life was ritual-driven. Women and children spent hours gathering sacred plants for the special

offering. For the first ten days of the month of karkidakam, Sreebhagavathy, the goddess received the traditional offerings. In front of the Machu, the household shrine, there was a display of dasapushpam, the ten sacred plants in a gleaming brass plate, water in a bell metal pot with a spout, valkannadi, a mirror of polished brass, sandal paste and vermillion, before a lighted lamp. The sacred corner glowed like the sanctum sanctorum at dawn. The Ramayna was also kept there. In the mornings the oldest member of the family sat reading the Ramayana in a singsong style. After their morning bath girls and women would apply kajal to their eyes and have a bindi of mukkutti chanthu, the juice of a crushed herb.

Married daughters came home for their annual health care. A medicinal porridge was specially prepared for the entire family. The old and the middle-aged had their herbal concoction, an annual preventive doze for rheumatic ailments. The bulls were given special diet as part of the agrarian economy and past time. At twilight after the lighting of the bell-metal lamp, children sat around reciting prayers. Night fell soon in those pre-electricity days. The dead were invoked on the day of the new moon. In kerala ancestral worship is part of religion just as animism has prevailed, although in pockets. The people were taught to sense the divine in plants, animals and spirits; to feel the sacred thread that runs through Nature; to know that humans are part of a divine design; to accept the need for harmony with their surroundings, to carry on the heritage

of the past to the present. The end of karkkidaka would complete the reading of the whole Ramayana. So Karkkidaka is known as the month of Ramayana as well. Even now a few, who cannot root out their roots, follow the tradition. But, for the majority, the ritual is a temple-centered community affair now. Dhanwanthari is the patron saint of Ayurveda, Indian medicine. In the month of Karkkidaka the prasad given here is mukkidi, the juice extracted form medicinal plants. Having a doze of this juice daily for a month in the rainy season was the traditional preventive antidote for a year¢s epidemics.

Change inevitable, has affected kerala and its traditions. Today, a wholesome tradition is reduced to a ritual for the first day of the month of Karkkidaka. The Ramayana resonates in the air because of the amplifier at the temple. Herbal medicines are available in powder form in shops. The agrarian life is replaced by consumer culture. And elephants enjoy Sukha-chikilsa. The torrent has receded from the plains. Yet the Monsoon meditates in the rain forests of the Western ghat that overlooks the Arabian Sea.

Karkkidaka vavu

Karkkidakavavu bali( pitru tarpanam) is the ritual to propitiate the souls of the ancestors, performed in Kerala on the vavu or new moon day of the Malayalam month Karkkidakom (Cancer). These elaborate rituals of worship are performed standing waist deep in the river or beach.

Karkkidakavavu bali is performed at certain places like the banks of the river Bharathappuzha at Thirunavaya in Malappuram district, Varaikkal beach at Kozhikode, Shankhumugham beach at Thiruvananthapuram and Varkala beach. Boiled rice, turmeric, thulasi (Ocimum) etc are used for the rituals connected to the bali.

Usually the bali is performed on the death anniversary of a person, but Karkkidakavavu is a day common to all and performing the ritual on the day is believed to be auspicious. This custom of ancestor worship is practised in the hope that the soul of the beloved departed will attain salvation and be free of any wordly bonds that might not give eternal rest. The Pujaris (hindu priests) help and guide devotees in chanting the mantras and performing the rituals.

with regards

dilip

July 21, 2008

Om Shakthi !Dear Dilip..jiThe article, though knew for years, was definitely a brushing up taking me to my Grandma's time....to our Tharavad. I was seriously taken to my childhood days, the time i used to go for collection of the " Dasa Pushpams " and after that run to the school etc. The " Marunnu Kanchi " etc. The treatment time for all Bulls etc. at home, the rainy days ....our tough days to go to school.....Oh...What a nice experience it was ! Sitting in a busy city with busy schedules, thinking of such graceful moments ....wow .....superb !

Thank you Dilipji once again,2008/7/20 DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN <prdili:

Namasthe

Dear friends Herewith I add some details about Karkkidaka month specialities and Karkkidaka vavu . some of our friends may be dont know this . So this is for them.( some of my friends send me mail to give some brief details about this.)

The Month(masam) of karkidakam Its changing traditions

Long ago, and far away, for the farming community of rural Kerala, the month of karkkidakam with its torrential rains was a period of confinement and forced rest. While rains nourished the tender paddy in the fields, the people took care of their houses and themselves. As Mother Nature began her cleaning spree the women folk followed her habit. From among the plants they gathered leaves that served like wet sandpaper and cleaned the dirt from doors and windows, ritual objects and low wooden stool, their only furniture. And the wooden things gleamed in its natural grains. For, painting and varnishing was unheard of among rustic folk. Most of the houses had thatched roofs; only the rich lived in tiled ones. Karkkidakam was the month of sacred rituals, ancestral worship and healthcare.

Women and children gathered the customary herbs associated with worship in temples and herbal medicine. It was a practical lesson too. One learned to identify the herbs while hearing stories connected with their beneficial use as home remedies. Ancient wisdom was handed over by word of mouth from time immemorial.

On the evening prior to the samkramam there was a ritual ceremony of packing the Chetta, the presiding spirit over dirt, off. Women with broom went around cleaning and dusting and driving out the Dirty thing that hid in corners. Basically, it was a thorough cleansing before the twilight. For children, the ritual meant a serious part of life. In olden times life was ritual-driven. Women and children spent hours gathering sacred plants for the special

offering. For the first ten days of the month of karkidakam, Sreebhagavathy, the goddess received the traditional offerings. In front of the Machu, the household shrine, there was a display of dasapushpam, the ten sacred plants in a gleaming brass plate, water in a bell metal pot with a spout, valkannadi, a mirror of polished brass, sandal paste and vermillion, before a lighted lamp. The sacred corner glowed like the sanctum sanctorum at dawn.

The Ramayna was also kept there. In the mornings the oldest member of the family sat reading the Ramayana in a singsong style. After their morning bath girls and women would apply kajal to their eyes and have a bindi of mukkutti chanthu, the juice of a crushed herb.

Married daughters came home for their annual health care. A medicinal porridge was specially prepared for the entire family. The old and the middle-aged had their herbal concoction, an annual preventive doze for rheumatic ailments. The bulls were given special diet as part of the agrarian economy and past time.

At twilight after the lighting of the bell-metal lamp, children sat around reciting prayers. Night fell soon in those pre-electricity days. The dead were invoked on the day of the new moon. In kerala ancestral worship is part of religion just as animism has prevailed, although in pockets. The people were taught to sense the divine in plants, animals and spirits; to feel the sacred thread that runs through Nature; to know that humans are part of a divine design; to accept the need for harmony with their surroundings, to carry on the heritage

of the past to the present. The end of karkkidaka would complete the reading of the whole Ramayana. So Karkkidaka is known as the month of Ramayana as well. Even now a few, who cannot root out their roots, follow the tradition. But, for the majority, the ritual is a temple-centered community affair now.

Dhanwanthari is the patron saint of Ayurveda, Indian medicine. In the month of Karkkidaka the prasad given here is mukkidi, the juice extracted form medicinal plants. Having a doze of this juice daily for a month in the rainy season was the traditional preventive antidote for a year's epidemics.

Change inevitable, has affected kerala and its traditions. Today, a wholesome tradition is reduced to a ritual for the first day of the month of Karkkidaka. The Ramayana resonates in the air because of the amplifier at the temple. Herbal medicines are available in powder form in shops. The agrarian life is replaced by consumer culture. And elephants enjoy Sukha-chikilsa. The torrent has receded from the plains. Yet the Monsoon meditates in the rain forests of the Western ghat that overlooks the Arabian Sea.

Karkkidaka vavu

Karkkidakavavu bali( pitru tarpanam) is the ritual to propitiate the souls of the ancestors, performed in Kerala on the vavu or new moon day of the Malayalam month Karkkidakom (Cancer). These elaborate rituals of worship are performed standing waist deep in the river or beach.

Karkkidakavavu bali is performed at certain places like the banks of the river Bharathappuzha at Thirunavaya in Malappuram district, Varaikkal beach at Kozhikode, Shankhumugham beach at Thiruvananthapuram and Varkala beach. Boiled rice, turmeric, thulasi (Ocimum) etc are used for the rituals connected to the bali.

Usually the bali is performed on the death anniversary of a person, but Karkkidakavavu is a day common to all and performing the ritual on the day is believed to be auspicious. This custom of ancestor worship is practised in the hope that the soul of the beloved departed will attain salvation and be free of any wordly bonds that might not give eternal rest. The Pujaris (hindu priests) help and guide devotees in chanting the mantras and performing the rituals.

with regards

dilip

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