METTHAPPA (SOFT LEAF MAT BED) While I was arranging my guest roomtoday, I safely folded with a pillow inside two “Methappa” I am having andcovered with a new Jamukkalam and kept safely. I smelled the mats and found thefresh smell though six months old, but rarely used.
I requested my daughter in law’sfather on a visit Chennai, to get two numbers methappa from Chalai bazaar atTrivandrum and he happily obliged. The methappa is used as the precious beditem by me. The reason beingnon-availability of the item in Chennai. When my brother’s son come here, he wouldask only methappa for sleeping. I thought of writing about leaf mats today. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 19-9-2010 Reposted on 31-12-2020 after editing and updating.R. Gopalakrishnan.Wish you all ahappy new year 1.Methappa- production Methappa is typically a Kerala mat Productand used mostly in Kerala. Whatis Pathamadai Pulpai to Tamil people, methappa is to Keralalites for an analogy.Methappa is prepared using the grown up leaves of fibre plant Kaitha (pineplant) splitting the leaves to less than 1cm width,boiling, drying and weaving it. Kaitha is normally found grown on sides of river.Kaithappo is called as Thazhampooin Tamil. Normally two mats are woven andstitched together at the ends and folding the ends to inside. The finished mat will beabout 7 feet length and 4 feet width and weigh about half kg. The folding at edge gives more strength to the mat. Normally the edge stitching willappear coloured red or green by dipping the fibre in colour and using forstitching. Sometimes some inner designs are also made. The mat sellers willhave varieties of Methappa depending on the quality of fibre. Normally aMethappa is sold well above Rs 1000-00 today. Mini Methappa is called Tadukku. It is about the size of 2’x2’. This is used for lyingsmall babies on arms as well as for sitting on floor by elders. One person cansit on it. On olden days offering Methappathaduku was a big welcome. Coarse varieties of Methappa are called Thazhappa.While Methappa is whitish grey, thazhappa is brownish grey. The weaving job is very tedious formethappa in addition to procuring leaves cautiously ensuring reptiles are notthere near plant. The leaves are boiledand dried after removing thorns on sides. If used with care one methappa may lastfor 8-10 years. When I got my first job in 1964, Ipurchased a single teak wood cot from Kerala and send by TVS Parcel service toChennai. I brought two mats and brought along with my luggage. On those days a mat cost Rs 40-00. The costof single cot was rupees 100-00. Methappa was laid over the cot instead of bed. 2.Thazhappa Thazhappa the cousin of Methappa iscoarse variety, and cost less. Normally Methappa will be laid over Thazhappaand used. In my boyhood days I was sleeping on Thazhappa. Methappa was a dream. 3.Methappa as part of seeru. I recollect during the time ofmarriage of my sister two methappas were given as part of seeru instead of bed.It was somewhere 1953. 4.Kidanna paa churuttanam (Bed has to be rolled and kept in the morning) Sleeping mat should be rolled andkept in the morning. Something like our present day loft there was a provisionwith more width fitted to a wall made of wooden frame. It was called “Thattu”. After sleeping inthe night, in the morning the mats were rolled and kept over the thattu. Myfather was very special of it. It gave neatness. My father used to say poverty will prevail if mat is not rolled and kept. He was having a Kattil (cot).Rolled mat was never even kept on it. The rolled mat actually gave an appearance.Normally the main hall used to have the Thattu or sometimes in the bedroom. 5.Paa veno, Paa (You want mat?) On earlier days mats were sold bymerchants taking on head load. Some 20-25 mats used to be with the merchant.Always bargaining was there. As the years went the streetmerchants gradually got stopped and the mats were available in markets. Latermat shops started by the side of main roads. They used to sell different typesof mats, pillows and cotton beds. Later matsagain started appearance in markets as well as shops. As the production became less,methappa started appear in Khadi crafts and sometimes in Markets. In Chalaibazaar at Trivandrum two or three merchants use to have methappa and that toomaximum 5 or 10. In Khadi crafts it cost more than double the market cost. OnceI saw in “Kairali” a Kerala sarvodaya shop in Chennai, methappa two or threenumbers. Cost was imaginative!! 6.Olappa Very coarse variety of mat isOlappa. It was made using panayola (Leaves of Plamarah tree). It was verycoarse and mostly used for drying grains. In Tamilnadu for packing tamarind,vellam etc these types of mats are used. 7.Pulppa. (Grassmat) With the Tamilnadu merchants comingand selling mats gradually Pulppa started appearing in Kerala. However by1970’s pulppa were common in mat shops and bazaars at Trivandrum, Kottayam etc.Thazappa was over takenby Pulppa. Coarse varieties of pulppas became common in Kerala. Ofcourse Pulppa is mostly used by Brahmins. 8.Pathamada ppa When I came to Chennai I got thefamous places for different items like Tirunelveli Halwa, Erode Manjal,Pathamedappa, etc. I was not knowing on those days where Pathamadai was. Verylate I understood it is near Cherama Devi enroute Papanasam from Tirunelveli. We pass through Patthamadai on the way toSadavudayar koil. 8.1Special Pathameda ppa for marriage In Trivandrum when I conducted themarriage of our daughter in 1997, there used to be a merchant from Pathamedaapproaching Brahmin homes and taking order. We called him on Land phone. Nextday he came and took order for oonchalppa, sitting mat and panthippa andsupplied. The technology was developed much,printing of names bride and bridegroom marriage date etc was there in the matalong with designs. It cost something about one thousand rupees for the mat. 10.Marriage and pulppa Now without pulppa no Brahminmarriage is there. I am not sure when in central Kerala they became popular. InQuilon and all (Tamil population from very early time) pulppa was there. In oneof my cousin sister’s marriage early 60’s pulppa was purchased from Quilon.Trivandrum should have pulppa from very early time. 11.Pulppa in Tamilnadu Pulppa is made using some lengthygrass. The method of preparation is somewhat similar to Methappa. Probably heretoo boiling is done for flexibility and dried and weaved. But no splitting ofleaves. The weaving is done using cotton thread. Like Methappa, no braiding ofthe leaves. Coarse varieties are available fromRs 200-00 now in Chennai. Fine varieties and coloured ones, side stitched withcloth etc. cost much more. Pulppa too come for a few years (but lesser thanmethappa) when well preserved like marriage Pulppa. These marriage Pulppas areused on festive occasions like navarathri with caution. 12.Paikkada In Chennai when I come it was anews to me there is a shopping areacalled Paikkada (Mat bazaar). At least 15 shops were there. In Madurai too I have seen series shopsselling mats near Meenakshi temple.n Chennai this mat bazaar sell,pillows, beds and mats. It is near Park town or central station. 13.Advantage of Pulppa and draw back of my methappa While methappa can be used only asmat for sleeping, pulppa can be used for sleeping as well as sitting. Normallytwo or three colourful and quality pulppa will be ready near Navarathri kolu.One will always spread immediately to ask the women visiting the kolu to offera seat. Others are to accommodate more women. For Navarathri normally thepanthippa is not used to offer seats for woman. Last Navarathri we were to Kalayanicotton to purchase their sarees (Near mount road?). I found well designed andcoloured pulppa there and before my wife ask for I purchased one andcomplimented her tearing the price tag. (It was about Rs. 1000-00). -- 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/1852587744.4875139.1609423635770%40mail.yahoo.com.
