A COUNTRY
OF MANY GODS
SERIES ON
PRE- MODERN VISUAL CULTURE OF KERALA
(Published in New Indian Express on 15/ June/2021)
1
Mapping the Land
To highlight the natural beauty of the region the
promotional campaigns of Kerala Tourism call Kerala “God’s own country”.
Another reason can be, though not realized by the strategists of the Kerala
Tourism campaign, the sheer number of temples, Churches, Mosques and even
Synagogues in the state which would qualify Kerala as “Gods’ own country”.
Almost all villages and towns in Kerala do have religious structures from medieval
period to contemporary times, of different religious and cultic affiliations
and sizes depending on the economic and political importance of the
village/town. In Kerala one can see the cave Temples at Vizhinjam, carved out
by the Pandyan rulers in 8th century, one of the earliest mosques in
India at Kodungallur and the Church at Niranam which is considered to be
established by Apostle St. Thomas himself. Kerala was the destination for many
indigenous and foreign religions including Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism along
with Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all travelling through the
well-established trade routes thanks to the monopoly of Pepper, Cardamom and
Ginger. Kalidasa writes in his Raghuvamsa
Mahakavya about the pepper plants and the rising smell of cardamom as
Raghu’s horses trampled through the Kerala forest.
I have been
travelling through the length and breadth of Kerala since my childhood and have
noticed something unique of the region. The fact that, standing anywhere in
Kerala you are never far away from a temple, mosque or a church. Kerala can
actually boast about 10 times a greater number of religious structures than the
number of villages in the state. According to the 2011 Census there are 1018
villages [1364 in 2001 Census] in Kerala along with 87 Municipalities and 6
Municipal corporations sharing 1,01,140 places of worship along with 29,565
Hospitals and 70,435 Educational institutions. This is not the number of places
of worship used by the Hindus only but includes the Mosques and Churches
belonging to various Christian sects. The number of the places of worship in
Kerala is almost 3.5 times higher than the hospitals [29,565]. An interesting
aspect revealed through the analysis of the data provided by 2001 Census of
India is that Kerala is in the fifth position as far as density of Religious
structures coming after Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa and Assam. In Kerala 1000 people share 3.1 Religious
structures while in Himachal Pradesh it is the highest at 4.3; Delhi has the
least with 0.5. Neighboring state of Tamil Nadu is much below than Kerala regarding
the ratio of population and religious structures. Gujarat which has more
villages compared to Kerala but has only 142,135 buildings categorized as
places of worship. If one inverse the data we get an observation that every 315
people in Kerala has one religious structure much higher than Uttar Pradesh and
Haryana. The balance which is achieved in the health and education sector is
manifested only in the 20th century due to the western influence and
the resultant social and education movements. In other words, in the pre modern
period the ratio between the religious structures and health and education
buildings in Kerala would have been much more contrasting.
In Kerala
the village economy and social fabric was woven in and around the places of
worship, majority among them are temples quite akin to that of Tamil Nadu. Even
the legend like KERALA MAHATMYAM and KERALOLPATTI attempts to build the
social structure keeping the temple as the center. The Chola and Vijayanagara
models too successfully put the same structure in practice. Development of
cities around the temples like Kumbhakonam, Thanjavur, and Gangai Konda
Cholapuram under the Colas and Hampi and Tirumala under the Vijayanagara rule
are excellent illustrations of this theory.
The best
example from Kerala, where the cities developing around the temple can be
Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, which developed around the
Temple of Padmanabhasvami after Martanda Varma, dedicated the land of
Tiruvitankur to the cardinal deity of the temple through his Trippadi Danam in 1749, a ritual
through which Martanda Varma; the Raja of Tiruvitankur surrendered the whole region
to Lord Sri Padmanabha [Vishnu] of Thiruvananthapuram. Ever since Trippadi Danam, the Travancore kings
ruled the country as a servant/ representative of Sri Padmanabha and their
records always mentioned the king as Sri Padmanabha
dasa. Similar example can be seen at Thrissur [or Thrisshivaperoor],
the city which is literally built around the Vadakkumnatha temple. The circular road around the temple maidan constitutes the prime market
street of Thrissur town. Developed during the rule Saktan Tampuran in the early
19th century Thrissur became the center for the Pooram festival, where all the gods of the neighboring shrines
would congregate at Thrissur to pay respect to Shiva the cardinal deity of
Vadakkunnatha Temple. It is worth mentioning here that the Pooram at Thrissur was introduced by Saktan Tampuran, ruler of
Nediyirippu Svaroopam of Kochi to assert his authority amongst the small Naduvazhis around. At Payyanur in North
Kerala the cardinal deity, Subramanya/Kartikeya is considered as the ruler of
the region. He is addressed as ‘Perumal’, which is the common name for the
rulers used in Kerala [for example Kulasekhara Perumal for Ravi Varma
Kulasekhara]. Local myths state that some of the gods and goddesses had to seek
permission of Payyanur Perumal [Subramanya/Kartikeya of Payyanur Temple] for
‘residing’ in the Payyanur region. In Talipparamba [Kannur District] the
presiding deity, Siva, is considered as the Raja [King of Kings]. Devotees are
expected to behave in the precinct of the temple as if they are in front of the
emperor.
There are
many such interesting myths and fascinating legends along with fantastically
carved wooden sculptures and architecture attached to these religious
structures through which the political, social and cultural life of a region
can be comprehended. In this series, titled A Country of Many Gods, we
will travel through the pre modern visual culture of Kerala.
Dr. Jayaram Poduval
Department of Art History
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
Gujarat
jpoduval@gmail.com
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