PANCHA PATHRAMDearfriends, Seeingthe brass panchapathram well cleaned and shining I thought of Panchapathram canbe my topic today.
Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 21-8-2010 Reposted on1-1-2020 after editing and updating. Wish you all a happy new year.R. Gopala Krishnan 1. Gold Panchapathram Recently I hadbeen to Joy Alukkas in Chennai. There was a display of Panchapathram made ofgold. Surely Brahmins use Panchapathram. So the display showed it was a movableitem and over than that an affordableitem by some Brahmins. Minimum at least 150 grams of gold is required to make alightweight small size Panchapathram with Uddirini. Members can calculate theprize. Recently there was a posting loosing concentration by keeping chapelsoutside and worshipping in the temple. I think anybody bringing Gold panchapathram too would be attention of all others and cannot get concentrationduring upakarma. 2. Silver Pancha pathram Silverpanchapathram is offered to the bridegroom during marriage as gift. The size ofpancha pathram has a limit and weight can vary between 200- 500 grams. SilverPanchapathram is used for all auspicious occasions like Jathakarmam,namakaranam, Seemantham, marriage, avani avittam etc. In the oldendays our sasthrikal used to make special announcement to keep safe VelliPanchapathram, Velli Thattu etc safe after finishing the function to the hosts. For Upanayanamuncle brings Pancha pathram Uddirini for the Vadu as gift and it is consideredas customary. If three or four uncles are there Panchapathram can be moreweighing. If uncles are not there naturally mother’s parents will be bringingPanchapathram Uddirini. Now a day itis most common to bring silver pancha pathram uddirini for Aavaniyavattam and everybodyhaving there is no distraction. Update- For reasons not known now 99%bring brass thattu, panchapathram and uddirini.Very few bring copper items. 3. Brass Panchapathram uddirini Brass Panchapathram uddirini is common in use, especially for its bright yellow colour. Forall functions including Tharpana now a day we use Brass items. I havePanchapathram Uddirini in Silver, brass and copper. I normally use Brass one. SomehowI developed a liking for Brass. 4. Copper Pancha pathram Uddirini For semiauspicious functions like sraadha and Tharpan it is preferred to use copperitems only. For inauspicious only copper items are used. 5 Temples and use of pancha pathram Uddirini PanchapathramUddirini is used to serve Theertham, performing nivedyam etc in Temples. InKerala temples mostly nampoothiries prefer Kindi instead of Pancha pathram. Allthe above metal types are used in Temples. Yes golden items are used in somefamous temples. 6. Use of Golden Panchapathram. We have ourGolden Devi temple at Vellore. Tons of gold is used in the temple. We haveTirupathi temple richest in India. There is Guruvayoor temple and Padmanabhaswamy temple, which are richer. Recently I read the coconut shell in whichmango Nivedyam offered in Padmanabha swamy temple is covered with gold now. 7. Pancha pathram and Avani avittam In my boy hooddays it was a practice to take Pancha pathram and Uddirini for Avani avittam.It was used for intial arghyams and aachamanam. Tharpanams (Kandarshi) wasperformed in the river. Later we use to take theertham in it. It was customary to worship in the templefrom Aanakottil and go to home. There was one Kochumadathil periyappa who useto conduct Aavani avittam. No sasthrikal. From him I learnt my verse- “Narmadasindhu Kaveri Godavari namosthuthae….”. Pithru Tharpanam was performed byelders who lost father and we were eager to watch it. On those days maximum dashing could be fiverupees by the richest. Normally our father would give two Rupees and we all (threebrothers) will perform simple namaskarams. After having asingle Pancha pathram of copper, we were using brass glasses instead ofPanchapathram. I am not sure about the spoon material now. On those days brassglasses too had dignity. Today if any iyer take a brass glass every body’s eyeswill be on him. What happened to his Panchapathram? This would be a matter ofdistraction. On those days sharing Panchapathram too was common takingadditional uddirinies. Today it is rare unless one forget to takepanchapathram and took Uddirini 8. Pancha pathram size Irrespectiveof the material used, there is a limit to the size of Panchapathram. It shouldintake about 200- 300 ml water. Make sure if water is getting less add morefrom a vessel like brass montha. Always for Arghyams one has to take Uddirinifull water. This is special during Tarpana and sraadha. 9. Pancha pathra- sacredness. We can usePanchapathram and Uddirini for various functions and water has to be taken withUddirini only. We cannot make use of Pancha pathra instead ofglass. Glass can be a substitute for Pancha pathra. The only occasion weuse water straight from Panchapathram is for “Tripthyatha,thriptha, Tripthya “during Tahrpanams and sraahda. 11. Origin of name Panchapathram Initially fordifferent uses during functions we were using five different vessels anduddirini. It is told it created a lot of confusion and some sages like Yanjavalkya or Vaisampayana decided in future it can be one. 12 Cleanliness of Panchapathram It is atmostimportant to clean Panchapathram Uddirini at least twice a week. In my home itis a practice to clean Thursdays. I take special care to ensure it is firstcleaned by lady servant and give back before other vessels cleaning. (The best Ican get done) I will finishquoting an incident from a Tamil film acted by Sobhana and Bhagya raj. Nothaving sufficient Brahmins, one sasthrikal makes Bhagyaraj to wear Upaveethamand take him for a function in Sobhana’s home. Bhagyaraj was asked to get one more Panchapathram frominside during the function. Sobhana hands it over in a minute and still Bhagyarajkeep waiting. On her query he further express, it is only one, he shows fivefingers and say five are required as if she was careless in giving correctquantity….. -- 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/2072623340.4898303.1609468551166%40mail.yahoo.com.
