In my last post, I had talked about my daring journey to Kumbakonam. Now, on to the Kavadi.
Kavadi, in Tamil, translates to burden. The ceremony is undertaken by devotees of Murugan - Lord of War. By carrying this burden, they gain favor from Murugan and are able to cleanse themselves. My Catholic friends get off the hook easy (no pun intended) compared to these devotees. There is no caring priest in these confession booths; only hooks, skewers and peacock feathers await. Oh, the peacock is Murugan’s stead, that’s why the peacock feathers - it’s not meant to tickle torture the already agonized devotees.
The Kavadi though, ranges widely. The burden can be as simple as a pot of milk carried on the head or, more commonly, a semi-circular canopy held in place by a wooden rod which is carried on the shoulder. Most devotees go barefoot, but a lucky few get to wear some rather uncomfortable shoes with rusty nails whom you see hobbling along behind the crowd. At the extreme end, you have devotees like the one in the picture. What you’re seeing is this man pulling the Kavadi (God knows how heavy it is!) with ropes secured to his body using metal hooks. Beside him, you see another brightly colored devotee using oranges as the burden. The Kavadi is always some form of offerring to Murugan. When they complete their journey to the temple, the Kavadi is offered to Murugan and in return they get their blessings.
What’s interesting is that this ceremony is not just popular in India, its huge in Malaysia and Singapore due to the large population of ethnic Indians. When I was in Singapore once, I even saw an ethnic Chinese getting into the action and carry the hardcore version of the Kavadi - piercings, skewers and all!
I also found a blog about some adventurous folks down in Argentina and Uruguay who decided give the Kavadi a try. It’s quite amazing how a people so distant geographically and culturally can connect with one another in a completely different plane of ideology. Kudos to my friends in Latin America!
So anyway, now that we have an idea of what the Kavadi is, my journey to Swamimalai in Kumbakonam resumes. I spent the night at a surprisingly decent hotel called Alagu Swamimalai (beautiful God’s mountain). The waiters there, however, were a couple of rather forgetful locals who reminded me of Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Their service was lacking, but it was tremendously entertaining watching them bungle up every task.
In the morning, the men-folk dressed in traditional veshtis and the ladies in their dazzling Kanchipuram saris. We then set off, barefoot of course, to Swamimalai. We did not indulge in any Kavadis with sharp protrusions. The plain old semi-circular canopy kind was what we used. When we got to the foot of the “mountain” it was a bit of a disappointment. It was no mountain at all - it was barely even a hill! However, it was quite amazing how the entire temple had been draped over the hill so immaculately that they appeared to be as one.
We made our way up the temple - 60 steps at a time. The Tamil calendar has 60 years per cycle, hence the significance of 60 steps; each one is named after a Tamil year. At the top, preparations were being made for milk and yogurt abhishekams (sacred bathing). We gave our offerings to the priest to include in the ritual. People around me were discussing how another temple’s idol was getting eroded by too many abhishekams being performed on the deity. Back in the old day, this ritual used to be performed rarely, but now, with greater affluence, everyone want’s to do it, and its taking a toll on these centuries old statues.
With the abhishekam performed, our journey was complete. It was time to head back to Chennai. Ah, I just remembered, our master fuse is busted, which means no air conditioning on the way back. Oh Lord!
