KULADEIVAM

KULADEIVAM
While you are working literally you have no time for anything except work. Once you retire you seem to have more than 24 hrs in a day. You start thinking about other things.
One thing which always fascinated me was the concept of Kuladeivam. I have heard from my parents that our Kuladeivam is Peruvambu Bhagavathy and every time we go to Palakkad we used to visit this fine temple.
These Kula Deivams are considered as the ANCESTRAL God..meaning our forefathers and relatives have been worshiping that god for ages. It is the unshaken belief of most of the Hindus that these family deities take care of our family and save from all hardships and hindrances. Every family has a guardian angel called Kula Deivam (Kulam -- Lineage/Family, Deivam -- God). This in most communities tend to be different from the Hindu Gods that are generally worshiped in a common temple. A temple to a Kula deivam constructed in one's ancestral village/town, will have it as the main deity (Sanctum Sanctorum) while other Gods may also be present in the periphery. The Kula deivam can be formless as well. People who have migrated to other places still visit their ancestral village/town and pay their respects by offerings (donations /charity /breaking coconuts) and feasting (called pongal -- which is also the name of Thanksgiving festival and a dish made of rice). Since in most villages, people of the same community tend to be related, everyone will have the same Kula Daivam.People visit the temple of their Kula Deivam every year and make special pujas from their family.
We had Peruvanbu as our kuladeivam, Uma's father's Deivam was Manapallykavu and my daughter-in-law Laksmi's was Mangottukavu. We visited all three of them and I thought that in this blogg I will describe all three of them.


PERUVAMBU.
As already said this is our KulaDeavam. It is a small village around 25 kms from Palakkad. The surroundings are beautiful with lush green paddy fields and surprisingly good roads. We started around 7 o' clock in the morning and in half an hour flat we were there in the temple. As typical of all these temples there was a very nice temple pond right in front where you can see people having bath. I was very much tempted to have a dive into the water and the only thing stopped me from doing was because I was dressed in dhoti and did not have my swim suit with me.
The temple per say is a very small one but cute.
On enquiry we were able to find a story about the temple which is as follows.
A farmer was digging in his fields when he struck something from which blood oozed out . On digging further he found it to be an idol of Devi. Before he could attract attention he heard a divine voice which told him that the idol is that of Sita devi, The voice also added the this idol may be placed facing north and should not be enclosed but should be open to all forms of nature. Thus the temples known as Peruvambu.
We went inside and prayed at this powerful temple .
The Peruvemba is well known for its Ootukulangara Bhagavathi kshethram. The most important service performed at the temple is the Chaandu abhishegam to the Bhagavati Devi. "Pattham Pathayam" is a festival celebrated in the last week of December every year. During that time, there is a day when everyone is allowed to freely enter the inner portals of the temple and reach very near the goddess. The temple has its own Aalmaram and temple pond. The dewaswom building is now newly built alongside the kalyana mandapam.
MANGOTTUKAVU.
This temple is the Kuladeivam of our daughter in law Laksmi's family.So when her brother and wife came to Palakkad we decided to go to this temple.
This place again is around 30 kms from Palakkad. You go on the NH47 towards Trichur and reach Alathur. At this place you take a right turn and proceed for another 10 kms amidst typical villages and finally we reached a place. On enquiry we found that we have reached where the original temple was there .This place is known as Moolasthanam,after praying at this location we proceeded to a place called Athipatta.
The goddess in this temple is supposed to be in her very fierce form. She is also considered as the younger sister of Parakkattu Bhagwathi who has a temple in Kavasseri near by.
Mangottu Bhagawathi is supposed to have come to this place to fulfill the desire of a weaver. This weaver,Kuttan, was a great devotee of the Goddess. He and his people wove clothes and sold them in places where festivals were held. It is said that at one place, he was so enchanted by the appearance of the Devi there that he mentally requested her to come along with him. At that time, there was a whirl wind which removed the clothes of the idol of the Goddess which was being taken out in a
procession. Kuttan immediately threw the cloth that he had brought to sell on to the goddess. This cloth fell on the Goddess and got attached there. Next day Kuttan returned to his village. He was carrying an Umbrella. At a particular point he got so tired that he kept the Umbrella on floor and slept near by. When he woke up, he was not able to remove the umbrella from the ground. An astrologer was summoned who told Kuttan that the Goddess has occupied the Umbrella and she wants to live in it.

It was very nice to see a quite a good crowd here and we were lucky to see the Deeparadhane and got some appams and payasams as prasadam.

The one big noticeable feature when you visit these temples is that most of these temples are flourishing as the devotees are contributing liberally and the Deavasom Board is spending money in the up gradation of these smaller temples.

MANAPALLIKAVU
My father-in law's family deity, Manapally kavu was our next visit. As this temple is in Palghat town itself we decided to go there one evening. This was just 2 kms from were we were staying, close to the Tippu 's fort in Palakad. Surrounded as usual by the temple pond and disappearing lush green paddy fields this powerful Devi temple has a huge papal tree in front of it. You can witness quite a good crowd in the temple.

The Goddess appears as a flat black face against red cloth, with metal etchings marking her features. The starkness is reminiscent of both primeval and modern sculpture. In the circling camphor flame those golden eyes leap to life with a startling suddenness. The tilakam flares into molten gold. You feel the power in those eyes, at once cool and burning. The image blends with its living backdrop of tree trunk folds.
The priests in these types of temples are really great artists who decorates the idol beautifully. As you pray you feel like continuously stare at the sanctum sanctum. Praying and walking around these places gives plenty of peace for your mind.
This completes our visits to these Kuladevams.