Pilgrimage to Sabarimala - 14th - 17th March 2009

This was my fourth visit to Sabarimala, and the first since my accident. Swami Ayyapan or the Dharmashastavu as he is referred to is one of my family's most revered gods, and I must admit I have a particular liking for him - we share the same star of birth (though the same can be send for 1/12th of all lievs on this planet).

The trip comprised of my fathers side of the family - with my fathers youngest sister now old enough to make the journey to Sabarimala. For the un-initiated, only girls below the age of 10, or women above the age of 50 can visit Sabarimala. Though this may seem discriminatory to some, I do not wish to impinge on any controversial issues in this blog - refer to the wikipedia link on Sabarimala for more verbose information. I will simply deal with the places we visited, and my thoughts about each place.

Thrissur:

Thrissur is my hometown in Kerala - the place where both my parents were born and brought up. I look upon myself as a Bangalorean, though I've spent at-least a month of every year of my life in Thrissur. Thrissur is often referred to as the Cultural Capital of Kerala, which is rather presumptuous when you consider how vastly the people and their culture changes as you head down the length of the state. For more information on Thrissur, you can look here.

I spent the first day enjoying the company of my relatives and cousins (we don't meet all that often nowadays) before heading out to put on my mala/necklace. The climate at this time in Kerala was hot and humid, with heavy evening showers. The beauty of this rain is that getting drenched in it is actually fun and not (in my experience) harmful like your elders may warn you. I've had evenings in college where we played football while being absolutely hammered by persitent rain. The rains followed us all along the journey - I was probably the only one who enjoyed it at the time, but in hindsight, it certainly ensured the older folks in our group did not have to climb the hill in draining heat.

We set off on the morning of the 15th by tempo traveller. It was a comfortable, air-conditioned vehicle, and we weren't ever bothered by the fluctuating temperature outside. The trip to Sabarimala is never a straightforward one though. There are several temples along the way, where the pilgrims pay their respects before moving on. Being a swami (a name derived from "Tattvamasi" - I'll refer to this later), none of us had opted to wear slippers. If you've ever walked on an asphalt road, or a granite platform, or a bed of sand barefoot in the summer sun, you'll probably understand that this trip wasn't all fun. But then again, the most devout pilgrims climb all 18 hills on the way to Sabarimala, and we were climbing only the one.

Chottanikkara:

This was our first stop, around an hour from Thrissur. This is a lovely and well spread temple with two main Devi Kshetrams linked by a single path. I usually enjoy coming here but the crowd on the day was heavy. As Swamis, our "purpose" is to pay our respects entirely to Swami Ayyappan, so we weren't encouraged to enter the actual nada. We could pray from the outside though, which we all duly did.

For more information on Chottanikkara, you can refer here.

Vaikam/Kaduthuruthi/Ettumanoor:

These were the next three temples we visited - and honestly this is all a bit of a blur as we needed to get to Sabarimala by sunfall, and as a result, Pamba by tea time. These temples are all pretty old (made mostly of stone work), and they're also not very crowded. The temple at Vaikom is a Shiva temple, the temple at Kadathuruthi is a Mahadeva/Shiva temple, while the one at Ettumanoor is also a Mahadevar/Shiva (also referred to as Ettumanoorappan) temple. One very interesting (to me) aspect of these temples was the nature of the murals on the walls - the style is very similar to the ones you would see on some buddhist temples. The men and women in these murals look almost the same (in other words, there is no facial hair), and there is a strong Aryan influence in the skin tone of the paintings. This does lend credence to the legend that the Pandavas had a hand in the construction of the temple at Ettumanoor.

Erumeli:

Erumeli in the noon sun was an interesting experience. There are two main religious spots here, the Mosque of Vavar with the adjoining Ayyappa shrine, and the larger Ayyappa shrine along the banks of a branch of the river Pamba. The place has a very unique confluence of Muslim and Hindu devotees, with the mosque being a partcularly resplendent sight. Unfortunately, the ayyappa temple has been littered with a lot of rubbish, the adjoining river has been polluted beyond belief, and the place is swarming with unfortunate beggars looking for some scraps from the pilgrims who inevitably stop here to pay homage to Vavar on their way to Sabarimala. There was also the small matter of traversing between these two spots barefoot - it's like walking through burning coal that's a kilometer in length. After we boarded the bus, I spent a few minutes striking my best inverted yoga pose cooling my heels next to the air-conditioner duct.

Pamba:

The river Pamba runs at the base of Sabarimala and is the current point where all road traffic ends. From here on, it is a climb of around 3 to 4 kilometers before we reach the temple complex above. The first thing that struck me was the lack of a crowd - all my previous visits have been during the "season" and this was my first visit when it wasn't. The term lack here is used loosely - while on previous there were thousands milling around the river, there were now a few hundred; enough to keep the place littered and dirty.

The river Pamba, like all others in Kerala, starts frm the Western Ghats, and ends in the Arabian sea - a very small distance. This lack of distance essentially means that the river is narrow and has a steep grade - which makes it a nightmare for those that need water across the year as it quite simply flows away as soon as the rains end. For a crowded pilgrimage center like the base of Sabarimala, small dams are the only solution - this results in stagnant, polluted water. Needless to say, I've not had a "compulsory" dip in the Pamba since my first visit around 15 years ago.

The rain really started bucketing down on us here. I've experienced the aftermath of heavy rains in a crowded Sabarimala before, and it was extremely unpleasant. The whole place becomes extremely dirty - and to put it delicately, you never know what you're stepping on. This time however, the lack of an extreme crowd ensured I didn't have to go through that all over again. We salvaged some plastic bags from a nearby opportunist vendor, covered our parcels with them, and began the climb.

The Climb:

The climb is not a difficult one - if you're young and healthy. The majority of our group comprised of folks on the wrong side of 50, and it was up to the younger ones in the group to carry the bags, and keep an eye on the others. The rains had made the track slippery and trechearous, though the clouds kept the evening sun at bay. The view (dense, mist covered forests and valleys) was brilliant, and the slow pace helped me appreciate it. The path alternates between steps and slopes early on, with the slopes comprising of a combination of granite stones and concrete flows. There are a few restoration points on the way where the pilgrims can have something to eat or drink (lemon soda being my preference). The cutest sight I saw on the way up were a couple of little girls chanting "Ayyappo Swamiye" and clambering up the hill at a rapid pace, ahead of their exhausted looking brothers.

Since one of our group was visiting Sabarimala for the first time, we veered of on a path less taken, since she had to put a peacock feather at a particular scrine. This path was brutal - plenty of thorns and sharp shiny stones whose full import would be felt only the next day. This was a very picturesque route though, and I saw more rare species of monkeys on this path than in any sanctuary I've been to. We eventually reached the shrine, where I saw them for the first time: a cluster of wild pigs/boars.

If there is one single thing I can point to as the most revolutionary change in Sabarimala over the last few years, the pigs will have to be it. The pigs have done a tremendous job of cleaning up the massive amounts of litter that the devotees leave behind - and they have flourished. The bigger ones reminded me of hippos - they are that obscenely overweight. But they're effective - I for one will emphatically vouch for that.

Sabarimala:

From the shrine, we entered the temple complex just as darkness began to creep up around us. We were lucky to make it in time for the Padi (steps) puja performed at the base of the pathinettampadi (18 steps). These 18 steps represent the 18 hills that devotees of the past would have had to traverse before making it to the temple, before the road to Pamba was made.

After the pooja, we had our Darshan and headed to our rooms. We slept late, woke early, took bath in very cold water, and had another round of darshan.

I honestly do not have much to say about the temple - I've seen it four times already, and this familiarity makes me a rather useless observer. The occasions I remember include singing Harivarasanam, switching queues in the crowd to get ahead faster (lessons from Bangalore traffic) and the melam (orchestra?) near the nada that was absolutely world class.The other activities included dinner, sorting of our parcels and tossing the ghee filled coconuts into a large fire.

We set off downhill around 7 AM - and that's when the rigours of the previous day came back to haunt us. It's difficult enough clambering down a slippery slope for a full hour, but when the soles of your feet are sore, and sharp pebbles litter the route, it can really make you sing. The older folks took their time coming down - the younger ones reached Pamba as soon as they could and arranged food before the others got there. After that, we set off back to Thrissur.

The journey back was largely uneventful except for two factors. Firstly, we came back through Alappuzha and Kumarakom, so we had a good view of the backwaters there. Secondly, we headed to the temple at Thiruvarpu - which is of particular interest to the Pullat family in Thrissur (for those who know me only as Pullat, this is my fathers half of the family). It seems our ancestors actually migrated to Thrissur from this town. We must have been a pretty influential family back then, as there is an actual "Pullat Vazhipadu" there. Needless to say, the current generation were thrilled with this discovery, and this temple is now a regular haunt of some of the more excited ones.

We got back to Thrissur by about tea time on the 16th. I spent the 17th at my moms place and reached Bangalore on the 18th by train - sore feet et al.