CHEMBU AND CHEMBUKALAM Dear Friends, Recently Iread from mails about the copper content in the water of Tamraparni River inTirunelveli district and it’s naming so for the added copper content. Papanasam is on the bankof Thamraparni. Sometimes called in this location called Papanasini being nearthe famous Papanasam Siva temple. The place is about 15 KM from Ambasamudram.Famous musician Papanasam Sivan hailed from this place.
My memorieswere drawn back to olden days of copper use in day-to-day life while I wasleading a student life in Kerala. Most of the references are as such to Kerala.I am 77 years now. I will startabout Chembu (Copper-CU) with the use of a vessel by name itself Chembu. CHEMBU has morethan a meter diameter and height of about nine inches. The one with a tincoating inside is used for preparing rice for feasts. The same type of vessels isused for preparing sambar, payasam as well as for chukkuvellam also. Thesevessels were placed upon Mukootttu aduppu and firewood applied from three sideson those days .For all occasions there used to be a temporary adukkala pandal (Temporary Kitchen)in homes. In temples there used to be a valiya adukkala for sadya preparations. Chembu hastwo ears with hole about 1 inch diameter. Putting a rod through it 4 people used to lift the chembu from the oven. Now Ovens may be working on LPG There weretwo types of Chembu, Valiya (Big) chembu and cheria (small) chembu. When lesserquantity or additional quantity of preparations were required cheria chembu wasused. It has about 2 feet diameter. The chembu without coating was usedmostly for boiling paddy. Probably Mankombu and Kuttanad area people maybe better to explain added use of chembu without coating. During winter seasonin the Luxury homes water was boiled in it for bathing purposes. Once a runningcat fell in to the boiling water in Chembu and got burns before being saved.From this the saying- Catfell on hot water will fear cold water also. In Eruthil (Cowshed)Kanji (Starch water) and kadi (rice cleaning water) were offered to cows incheria chembu. It was convenient for the cows to drink them from chembu. Chembu wasan essential item in the primary and middle school during 1955-1960’s for thenoon meal scheme. Either rice or Kanji or Uppuma (famous English translation -salt mango tree by actor Mohanlal in a film with Menaka as heroine) wasprepared and served along with milk to students in the Lunch hour. It is not humour but fact thatmany students attended the schools for the Uchha kanji. Perumpayir Thoran usedto be mostly the side dish. My father wasin charge of these preparations in the Pandalam middle school where he wasworking as peon. If the preparations delayed for any reasons (including myappa’s absence during Thatha’s sraadham etc.) the Lunch bell used to be late. I have alsoseen chembu used in place of kanikka vanchi in temples like Sabarimala and Pandalam. During thosedays there were separate vessel shops in all places. Mostly items were ofcopper, limited brass and made to order bronze. Moosan (Copper smith) used to be present by the side ofvessel shops awaiting order. Display of chembu, kuttakam and Kalamoutside the shop was common and their display quantity valued the shop’srichness. My brother in Kerala owned a vessel shop up to 1975. Brass sheetsand copper sheets with varying thickness were displayed in shops. On order coppersmithswill make vessels of the required size and thickness and apply tin inside andgive. Some copper smiths used to have display of their own crafts. Best friend of Chembu is Kuttakam. This was another vessel used to be about two feet heightand about two feet wide. This fellow too had ears and people used to lift italso using ropes. Slightly conical in size. Many timesitems were used to prepare in Chembu and transferred to Kuttakam. Because ofthe depth it was more a storing vessel. Having a smaller mouth comparing toChembu covering with a lid or plank was easy. Kuttakam also has tin coating.Tin coating inside was to keep the items not damaged. Non-tincoated Kuttakam was used for preparing Kummayam for white washing. Kakka (Watershell) semi treated is obtained from merchants and put in Kuttakam to a halfits storage level and added hot water to the balance area and kept closed.Kakka would get converted to Kummayam in the next day. A day of no outside paints, OBDs etc. EitherChembu or Kuttakam though available is not used for day-to-day use in many homes.There was a storing place for them. In big houses the storing room was calledPathaya pura. In small houses it was Chayippu (Slanted back side portion).There also used to be Nilavara. (Basement of Area where important things werekept) Now peopleknow of Nilavara from Mannarsala temple where nilavara payasam is offered Naga deities. My homewhich was the tharavadu for many iyer families, who later constructed separatematams, had Pathayam as well as Chayippu and also a Nilavara. Chembu used to bekept on the sides of Pathayam. Kuttakam used to be in Nilavara. (In central Kerala there were/are norow houses for iyers. Everybody had a Tharavadu like Matam with medium compound) There is a place calledChembu near Vaikkam. Actor Mammooty is native of Chembu. A humour scene fromAliyan vs Aliyan Malayalam TV Show. Mother had akuttakam. One day after cleaning she kept in the open varanda. Son in lawfinding it as old vessel gave it to a scrap Tamil merchant for Rs 500-00 since in needof money. A thoroughsearch for kuttakam done in house. Mother totally upset for her kuttakam- Son finding somethingfishy with brother in law gets the truth, along with uncle rush to the shop ofscrap merchant. Scrap merchant says- Ippothu En kuttakam 2000-00 rupaai. It is mine now.Paying Rs 2000-00 and get back. Mother get satisfied telling- Entae kuttakam kitti. , (Igot back my kuttakam) CHEMBUKALAM Theday-to-day use was with Chembukalam. Another item used daily was Arikanchatti.The chembukalam had different uses. It was important that all chembukalamshould have good tin coating. Chembukalam was used for cooking rice, storingwater. Arikkan chatti was used to keep Sambar, Thoran etc. Iddalimavu, dosaimavu etc. were also kept in Arikkan chatties. Chembukalamand Arikkan chatties were of various sizes. Normal Chembukalam used to be aboutone foot width and one 1.25 feet height. They were handled by holding on thestrengthened top end called mouth or edge. Arikkan chattiesused to have varying diameter so that one will fit in to another. Their normalsize was about one and quarter feet diameter and half a feet height. In allsubsidiary works arikkanchatti helped Chembukalam. For preparation of ricewater while getting boiled in chembukalam, Arikkan chatti assist for cleaningand leaving rice washed water (Kadi) form rice. From Arikkanchatti rice was added to chembukalm. Arikkanchattihad its use in Sadya also. Later period Arikkanchatti started appearing inbrass with tin coating inside. Whereas Venkalappanai was used for cooking rice inTamilnadu, its place was occupied by Chembukalam in Kerala. For making both ends meet, so the saying among Keralaiyer is/was- Chembukalamaduppil Kerandae. Chembu,chembukalam, arikkanchatti etc are still in use, but their use reduced verymuch comparing to olden times. ORIGINALLY posted in 30-8-2010. Reposted after editing and updating on 2-1-2021. -- 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/1863980455.5028157.1609545433642%40mail.yahoo.com.
