Pranam
History of : Kerala Source: Deivathin Kural/ Voice of God – Volume 5
1 The Malayala Desam is located on the west of the long series of
hills known as Western Ghats. KeraLam is the Sanskrit name.
‘Kera’ is coconut and that entire area is full of coconut trees,
hence the name KeraLam. One the one side are the hills – that is Malai
and on the other side is ‘aazhi’ or ‘aazham’ so the Malayalam =
Malai + Aazham! There is a story about how this narrow strip of land came
into being. Parasurama killed and vanquished 21 generations of Kshatriya
kings and took their lands all over India.
2 So, he donated all the lands to Kashyapa Maharshi. Why Kashyapa?
Because all the animate life forms of this world came into being from him
only. People born in Manu’s lineage are human beings aka Man or Manushya.
Manu’s father was Vivasvan and his father was Kashyapa. Not only
that, he was the forefather of Devas, Dhaityas, Dhanavas, Raakshasaas,
Nagas and many others! Though there are many Prajapathis, only he is
specially called the Kashyapa Prajapathi. So, ‘let him manage all these men
and lands or do whatever’, was how Parasurama thought and donated it all to
Kashyapa! {KR: Kashyapa in sanskrit denotes the Rishi as well as the
nature space, creation from Prajapathi}
3 Parasurama started out. He went to the Western Ghats on the
western borders of the whole of South India and reached the
Sahayadri Mountain { KR: Sahya+ Adri= endurable mountain one of the 7 of
the Bharatha varsham} peak known nowadays as *Aanaimalai or Elephant
Top*. Close to the western side of the mountains was the sea. Those
days there was no Kerala or Malayala Desam, but only water of the seas.
Parasurama spoke to the Samudra Raja (the Lord of the Oceans), “
I seek your benign help for some spatial adjustment. By withdrawing
yourself a little away from these mountains, can you kindly create some
ground on the west of these ranges of mountains, for me to live?” Samudra
Raja told Parasurama, “Dear Sir! In your hands you hold that Parasu (Axe)
which you got from doing Tapasya to Parameswara. Throw it as far as
possible in the ocean and I shall recede that much away, up to the point
beyond where the water drops are thrown up to by the impact of the axe and
make all that land available to you.” Accordingly Parasurama threw the axe
into the ocean as far as possible. Water from the impact splashed in all
directions many miles in the N-S direction and less in the E-W axis. All
that area was exposed to the Sun and the sea withdrew. That is the Malayala
Desam or Kerala aka Parasurama Kshetra. Initially populated by fisher folk
talking an unorganized cacophony of languages. Parasurama did not wish to
be the only one doing Tapasya in such a vast area. So he decided to bring
in and settle a whole lot of Brahmins who would be doing their share of
Vedic activities of Homa, Pooja, Japa, Upaasana and other such Karma
Anushtaanaas. From the land of the Sozha Kingdom he invited Brahmins
known as Sozhiyas to this new land of his creation. They were Tamil
speaking Dravidian Brahmins as any other community in Tamil Nadu. The
Brahmins from Tamil Nadu are comfort loving, used to the moderate climate
of the area.
4 Endless rains, overflowing rivulets, with wet grounds full
of mire everywhere, it just did not suit them at all. They were afraid of
telling Parasurama who had a reputation as being quick to take offence.
They were actively considering running away from there, secretly in
the quiet. He knew all that. Let us just change one of their customs and
they can never get back to their motherland after that, he
thought. On the pretext of giving them a special identity, he
made them wear their hair in their head differently. Normally Brahmins
in Tamil Nadu shave off the front portion of their head above
the temple and let the hair at the back grow abundantly long.
Their long tresses are then cared for, oiled, braided and rolled
into a knot at the back of their heads. This is known as
Kudumi which would typically identify them. Parasurama introduced a
twist in this custom. He made them wear what is known as ‘Oordva Shika’, in
which the back of the head is shaved off and the hair on the peak of the
head is permitted to grow long, which is tied in to a knot to fall forward
just on top of the temple! *Till date Namboodri Brahmins of Kerala follow
this system only. But the Sozhiyas thought that this one small change in
the identity will not be such a hindrance in their acceptance back in
Tamil Nadu, when there is no difference in the other customs and
traditions. *So, most of them did go back to the banks of Cauvery River
once again and were accepted with open arms as expected. But the Oordva
Shika remained on top of the head, giving rise to the proverb, ‘Sozhiyan
Kudumi does not shake easily’, to mean that he does not listen to others
suggestions and also that he is not easily ruffled! Parasurama’s plan
however, had back fired. * So, he imported Brahmins from Andhra and
Karnataka en-mass and as a precaution, out of the 108 Aachaaraas that
are there for the Brahmin, he changed some 64 of them to give them totally
a new traditional identity. This worked and for generations they started
staying there. They are known as Namboodri Brahmins, stricter in their
observance of traditional Aachaaraas, than Brahmins elsewhere in the whole
of India! There is a book by the name of ‘Keralotpatti’. I have given you
the details from that book and a few PuraNas. *
5 There could be one question in your minds. If the Namboodri Brahmins
were mostly from Kannada and Telugu backgrounds and others were mainly
fisher folks from the Arabian Sea islands with some local dialects;
how is that Malayalam as a language contains a mix of words
from mainly Tamil and Sanskrit languages? *The Malayala language
evolved some 1,000 to 1,200 years back only. Before that Tamil was the
main stay. Still some of you can say, ‘How can it be?’ *I will answer
that. No society can be complete only with Brahmins and fisher
folks. There has to be a king, army, traders and so on. Most of
these were Tamilians only. The mountain ranges of Western Ghats are
literally hugging the Tamil Nadu from North to South with many
passages between Tamil Nadu and Kerala. From time immemorial
Tamilians are known to trade across the oceans and their reach included
Sri Lanka, Burma, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, most of East Asia and Western
shores of Africa and the islands in between. So, the point to be noted
is that the major population in Kerala after Parasurama created were
Tamilians who had moved there from across the Sahayadri Mountains. When I
said that Tamilians are too fond of their comforts, I meant only the
pulse-eating-brahmins and not the non-brahmins! (PeriyavaaL smiles while
saying this.) Others are very hard working capable of high levels of
tolerance. They knew all the tricks of agriculture and were
capable of doing aggressive marketing of their produce. So it was the
Tamil non-brahmins who populated Kerala in a big way and started planting
and cultivation of Black-Pepper, Oak trees, Coconut, SandalWood
and a variety of Spices in a big way, making use of the plentiful
water supply. Then fish was available both from the seas and a number of
rivers, rivulets and ponds. Life was plentiful and satisfying. The Chera
Kings were all of Tamil origin only for long. So, a parallel
civilization came into being in Tamil Nadu. As the majority was
Tamils, others also spoke the same language. All this happened
even before the historical times till Sozha, Chera and Pandya
dynasties were alternately predominant at various times. When
others from the East went there some Brahmins also must have migrated
to Kerala due to divine interest as many temples and temple towns came into
being in that land. Parasurama himself created some of them. Initially
there was a restriction against immigration as imposed by Parasurama which
got diluted over time. Anyhow he himself went incognito, not seen
by anybody and after that some Brahmins from the mainland could
have gone on visiting the religiously important temple towns and settled
there.
6 Historically recorded periods start around Asoka’s time. In
his Saasanam inscribed on stone slabs, about places where he spread his
views on peaceful co-existence, there is mention of Kerala also along with
other places of India. This is proof of the fact that there was
civilized social life in that part of the country already. It was part of
Chera Kingdom and Tamil was the language there. Silappadikaram a Tamil
classic literature is from that land only. Cheramaan PerumaaL
Naayanaar, who sang the Tamil divine songs of Thirumarais as part
of Saiva Thevaram collections was a King in Kerala. So also
KulaSekhara PerumaL, who sang the poems as part of the Vaishnava’s
Nalayira Divya Prabhandam collections in Tamil was a King in
Kerala. Therefore our AachaaryaaL also in his time must have spoken
Tamil. All Brahmins those days must have been well read. There could not
have been any Brahmin who had not done Adhyayanam and was knowledgeable in
Tamil and Sanskrit. Within themselves they must have spoken in
Sanskrit and with others used the Tamil language. Though our
AachaaryaaL came down to the Earth as an Avatara for rekindling
and rejuvenating the Sanaatana Dharma and did his all for
re-establishing it on very strong footings, with the passage of
time there was deterioration set in once again! In that flow of events,
suitably misusing some of the traditions introduced by Parasurama, other
than the first son of the families even amongst *Namboodri Brahmins,
started resorting to marriages with women of other castes. When such
relationships were created, a mix of Sanskrit and Tamil did come about,
which could have been the seeds of a new language to sprout.* By this
intermingling causing some dilution of standards of austerity, some good
by-products were also there. By this, in Kerala all castes became
knowledgeable in Shastras and Puranas. The education standards did improve,
especially fluency in use of Sanskrit words. For example, more than any
other part of India, taking a bath early in the morning and
visiting the nearby temple wearing clean clothes with much
noticeable devotion and piety is the practice by people of all castes in
Kerala. I do not for a moment wish to say that non-brahmins are
uneducated, unclean and things like that at all. Due to the type of work
that they have to do, especially the proletariat, they cannot afford to
care for cleanliness so much. Whether a factory worker or involved in
agriculture or in the job of clearing the garbage, they just cannot be too
finicky about cleanliness as a Brahmin is required to be in his duty!
7 Then if you take any of the craftsmen, their children learn
their trade from childhood from their elders, whether it is carpentry
or masonry, separating and spinning the silk thread or sculpting
a stone into shape! Going to school would be a double
unaffordable loss as it would mean, missing on the job training
and being coached by one’s grandfather / father / uncle, and
loss of cheap labour. So generally they would send one of the children
to school so that he could act as the in house accountant, manager and
correspondent, while others would be given on-the-job-training!
Since such people contribute substantially to the well being of the
society, the very Saastraas have been liberal in the standards of
cleanliness expected of them and in their case Adhyayanam is also not a
requirement. Still, the fact that in Kerala the standards of education,
knowledge of the Saastraas and Do’s and Don’ts of the Sanatana Dharma, are
way ahead of the rest of the country; indicates the apparent effect of the
brahmin influence. Though it was not an island all by itself, when it was
not so well connected by means of transportation, Kerala was having
certain benefits of inaccessibility and isolation from the
Mainland, unaffected by some of the social irreligious tendencies! *So,
when a typical local lingo developed into a full-fledged language by its
own right, all people of Kerala accepted it with pride as their
mother tongue. This is how the language Malayalam came into being. * Having
spoken so much about the story of Malayalam let me tell you the balance
also. After Malayalam had become well established, for some reasons some
brahmins from Tamil Nadu migrated there and settled closer to the Tamil
Nadu instead of going deep inside Kerala. Some shifted from the area
of Coimbatore to Palghat and settled near Pallassana. Others from
Tenkasi through Sengotta went near Trivandrum. Their Tamil is another
version with a scattering of Malayalam in pronunciation. When I said that
Kerala developed with its own culture unaffected by the happenings in the
Mainland, you should not think that it was totally isolated and that its
culture was alien to that in the Mainland. The Vedic culture is the culture
of what is India. Like a main river in which a number of tributaries come
and join, many flows such as the different cultures of Kashmir, Punjab,
Central India, Rajasthan, Bengal, Karnataka, Andhra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu
joined to make what is the Indian Vedic culture. To give yet another
example, if you think of Indian culture as a tree, these were its branches
and the roots were the Vedic one.
8 Parasurama settled brahmin-s from Tamil Nadu as the original
citizens, he ensured that Indian Vedas, Puranas, Temples, Yagnas,
Vratam-s such as for Shivaratri, Ekadasi, and Somavaaram; Karma
Anushtaanaas, Adhyayanam, Adhyapakam, chanting of Veda mantras and
establishment of Veda Patashaalaas were all brought in. So, even
when elsewhere in India these were not being observed or becoming subdued,
with the expanding influence of Buddhism and Jainism (Muslims
followed by Britishers were to come much later), in Kerala these
were more assiduously being observed. So, it was in the rightness
of things that our AachaaryaaL’s Avatara also took place there.
Later, things happened topsy turvy, trending in the opposite way
and I must mention that also. Since the whole of the eastern border of
Kerala was the range of mountains, it was not much affected by the
upheavals that occurred in the Mainland India alright. But what was in the
west of Kerala? It was all the Arabian Sea. So with the thriving trade of
Black Pepper, Cardamom, Sandal Wood, Oak timber and Ivory, there was also
an influx of traders and visitors from the west and they started settling
there. For many Jews, Christians and Muslims, Kerala became the
MotherLand! Though unaffected by the changes in the mainland,
they ended up accommodating all and sundry! Anyhow, all this is part
of the side effects of our own culture which believes in ‘Atiti Devo
Bhava’! Let me tell you one more surprising thing. Though the people
of Kerala accepted foreign religions, when it comes to Hinduism,
after our AachaaryaaL, they did not accept the other Sampradaaya-s of
Vaishnavas and Madhvas. Do we not see that even in Padmanabha Swami
Temple or Guruvayoorappan Temple they do not have Vaishnava Bhatta-s,
but only Namboodiri brahmin-s including in Sabarimala Aiyappa
Temple. This can only be considered as their devotion to our
AachaaryaaL who took Avatara there, after searching for a suitable place in
the whole of India. In recent times with the laying of roads and rail
communications to and fro between Kerala and rest of the country and
advanced education available all over, the somewhat secluded society of
Kerala has started spreading all over the country as well become
more international. In every foreign country today among expatriate
Indians, Keralites form a major chunk. Without standing on prestige, they
are ready to go anywhere and do any sort of work and thus have
proved to be as industrious and ubiquitous as the Sardarjis of Punjab,
making their presence felt in every nook and corner of the world!
K R IRS 25 12 20
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