KALLU (STONE) Dear friends,
It was in my mind towrite about stone for the past few days. Today I felt not to postpone further.I have tried to cover many aspects of stone to give an interesting reading. I am thankful to allmembers responding to me after reading my postings. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 30-6-2011. 1. Kalvettu (Letters written in stone) The earliest method ofconveying information should have been through letters written in hard stones.These hard stones are called karinkallu (Granite) In Malayalam the informationwritten is called sila likhitham. The script used for Kalvettu used to beslightly different from normal alphabets and is called as Vattezhutthu. In many temples we cansee the kalvettu intimating much information pertaining to temples in Kerala. I have seen chumatuthangies (Support head weight while resting) having letters written regardingits construction etc. in the MC Road in my boyhood in Kerala. Update- Many temples in Tamilnadu also I have seensuch likithams. 2. Earliest human shelter The earliest humanshelters were made with somewhat sized granite planks having less thickness.They are called kuta kallu.Such kutakallu has been recently found from many places in Wayanad. Indirectlyit meant, the early man lived on top of hills, mostly it could be due to fear of attack fromanimals. 3. The temples and stones Most of our old templesare constructed 95% with granite stones. Their pillars, roofing, all with sizedgranite stones. It makes me think, during one time many would have been expertsin stone works and it was their main job to construct temples. The heavy weight of thepillars, the roofing slabs all make me think, the stamina of our elders wouldhave been much more than us. The part of elephants in pulling and placing thestones too I feel important. Above all what made me wonder struck is thegranite works in Rameswaram temple. How those rocks were taken crossing sea tothat place?... Rameswaram is mostly asanded area. This is because when I visited Rameswaram, I had the occasion togo to a hill top temple and a light house. Or at one time granites wereavailable there? 4. The floating stones While in Rameswaram Ifound in two temples porous stones is put to float in water. A part of thestone could also be purchased if we desire so. The legend is that these stoneswere floated in sea to cross over to Lanka from Rameswaram during the warbetween Sri Rama and Ravenna. 5. Development of works ingranite In all probability, theearliest temple and shelters should have been with granite stones. Many templesare having crude granite works. Some are having excellent works. The crudeworks are seen on top of hill temple Tirunelli near Sultan bathery. Well-developedgranite works are seen in the temples in the plains. The type of granite stonesvaries different with places and many places in Tamilandu, the surface itselfis rocky here and there even in paddy fields. 6. Temple sanctums with Vettu kallu I have seen a few templesin the Kannur area where the vettukallu (laterite) is used including sanctum.Vettukallu is seen about 3-4 feet down from the surface earth in some places.This stone is hard, but lesser than granite. With simple cuttings with axe (Mazhu)we can cut and make to pieces. Their surfaces could be made polished. These laterite are still used for constructionof homes in North Kerala. The hard laterite are morein Kerala specially Calicut and Cannore. Now a day instead of axe, electricalstone cutter is used. In Tamilnadu the natureof land is such that such hardened surface is not there. Something similar isthere, but it is fragile in most places. Many houses were havingsmall ponds after cutting and taking laterite. This was a water storage area. 7. Kallu vettan kuzhi near Pandalam kochukoyikkal palaces. The palaces are at aheight and at the end of last palace, there are eighteen steps down to thestreet. On left side of it there is a large area having more than 20 feet depthleft as it is. It was actually fearsome to me seeing it in boy hood days. If Irecollect Thrivabharanam, climbs down these steps before reaching Kulanadatemple halt passing through the palace area. There would have been some hidden reason to keep the area like that. 8. Wider use of granite (Karimkal) >From olden days granitewas used for domestic use too after sizing. It was used >to make ural, aattukal,ammikkal, (grinding stones) etc. Now electric grinder >too use sized very smallgranite stones for grinding. These stones are >mechanically cut from large sizegranite stones. Today ammikkal has its use in >kalyana mandapam for iyermarriage for ammi methikkal. Everywhere mixer and >mixer cum grinder or wetgrinder electrically operated has replaced all old >manual implements. 9. Washing stone. The washing stone eitherfor dhobhi in the river or in houses are made from granite. Even now manyhouses whether used or not, haveaatukkal and washing stone for vasthu. 10. Bathing ghats. Invariably in bathingghats sized bigger size granite stones are laid for steps. These steps are usedto sit and apply soap, wash cloths etc. These steps go in to river water forsome depth, so that during dry season too steps are in water. 10a. Ghats at Varansasi I do not know whether atany other place so many ghats are there in a river like Varanasi to GangaRiver. The ghats are having sized stones of granite for steps. 10b. Ghats in to the sea. Recently I have been toRameswaram, and found excellent steps are made to sea to get down to sea forbath. Of course elders can sit in the pavement and take water in buckets andbath too. 11. The marble I have seen marbles asearly as 1965’s as flooring in railway stations 1st class waitingroom, dining table tops etc. But wider use of marble is after about 1990’s forflooring, steps etc. marble is heavy weight, cool, notvery hard, it isbreakable in some types. In Bada Ghat at Jabalpur of course I have seen hardestwhite marble. 12. The granite slabs The granite slabs overtook marble for flooring but for the cost, everybody would have preferred it.Though tough and sleek, it has good weight, but more slippery on wettingcomparing to marble. Most probably thetoughness and difficult to break has made the thala kkal in temples using roughgranite. We get most of granite and marbles from Rajasthan, sizing andfinishing is done at many places including Bangalore. 12a. Fine works The fine works on graniteis done to make idols in temples, sometimes years together to select good rockand work out heavy idols weighing tons and special trucks used for transport.The Anjaneyar at Nanganallur in Chennai is one such heavy work. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/19343990.4131924.1609203298400%40mail.yahoo.com.
