COPPER ITEMS PART 2
1 Boiler Today I am starting with boiler. This copper vessel is mostly used in teashops. Alwayswater would be getting heated in the boiler and as required for preparing tea,coffee, Ovaltine, bornvitta, or hot milk water is taken from it. One employ wouldbe permanent in all teashops near this. Incentral Kerala use of boiler in homes is rare. But it in Tamilnadu it wasavailable in rich and mediums homes, till water heaters became very common forbath rooms. 2 Copper plates Next item iscopper plates and ura. Normally sreekovil and Mandapam of temples have copper tops. Either as plate form ortiles form copper plates are provided over sanctum. The flag mast (kotimaram) of the mediumtemples are having only copper ura. Some temples have brass tops for sanctumand mandapam. Update- Now goldplating is done in many temples over copper tops. 3 Copper pot In templesthe use of copper vessels are more. In most temples still copper pot is used for fetchingwater. For navakam etc. small copper pots are used. In myboyhood days I have seen large copper pots in homes also. Now brass pots aremore. Large brass pot is used for central kalasam. For shashipoorthy the waterfrom the pots are poured on the person by all persons in the family/ sasthrikaldepending on the procedure in the area. For palkkudam brass pot is used. 4 Mookku Coming toyoungsters of the copper family we were having chembu vali. This was also sometimes called Mookku. Normally Rasam, hot wateretc are taken in these valis and served. There is a nose through which proper quantity could beserved. Mookku is available inbrass also. Both are tinned inside. Now in stainless steel mookku has appearedreplacing the copper and brass ones. The cooks find it convenient to transfer alarge quantity of water to the cooking vessel from large barrels/Kuttakam. 5 Chombu Like chembuthere is also chombu (smallpot). Chombu is invariable item for all poojas. This is considered divine.Normally for smaller poojas chombu is used for Kalasam. Normal size of thechombu is about 4 inches by 4 inches like a ball. Chombu is never kept on Agni. Chombu isstill surviving for all poojas for Kalasam. For Tharpanam for keeping additionalwater chombu is used. Chombu is made of pure quality copper. Chombu never usedto be tinned. Chombu isavailable in copper and brass. Now we havestainless steel chombu used in kitchen to keep milk, buttermilk etc. It has no divinity.It is used for any purpose required. Chombu has many miniature brothers. Among them VIP is Kasi chombu, since inthese chombu ganga water collectedfrom thriveni is filled andclosed with lid and sealed. Normally every month they are specially washed andkept back in Pooja room. TheGanga water is served by all close to the person about to leave to other worlds. Cleaningused to be done after bath and all sanctity. In all homes there would be one or two Kasi chombu. When once used the chombu is discarded. 6 Thambalam Tharpana moottai and Thambalam are another two items. As the very name indicateTharpanamuttai is used for such functions only. Thambalam isused on all occasions like auspicious as well as semi and non-auspiciousfunctions. Normally in temples flower offered during pooja is taken and kept onThambalam. Praasadam is offered from brass/ silver thambalam in temples.Thambalam is used to keep miscellaneous items, during poojas. Dakshina with betel,aracanut/coconut and fruit is offered in Thambalam. During marriage Thambalamis used for pada Pooja and gotholbhava. However Pithalai Thambalam (Brass plate) has over took copper in many samskaras. 7 Bowls Anotheryoung brother is Kinnams (Bowls).They are used for annual ceremonies. Normally the Kinnams used to be keptcleaned after a ceremony and never touched occasionally. For next ceremony onlythey are taken.Again cleaned and used. Separate bowls in brass or bronze are used for taking oil to temples, keeping oil for kid’sbath etc. Many used to take oil for bath to attending bhokthas in the bowl.Same with women invited for Sumangali prarthanai. 8. Copper glass Though todaywe have copper glassused for water therapy, I have not seen copper glasses used forcoffee or tea or water. As I remarked earlier the 1st cousinPithalai glass is used for those occasions. Update- Thoughstainless steel replaced brass and copper glasses, it has come back along NH to serve Kumbakonamfilter coffee. 9 Copper montha The next item is copper Montha. Now we have Brass montha in its place. It is used everywhere. Yester year’s water totoilet was taken in monthai. They were kept separately. Later small plasticbucket took the place of monthai. Present day toilets plastic bucket is anaddition to hygiene handwash. Tinnedmontha was used in my boyhood days to carry milk. 10 Anda In additionto these copper was used for many other items like Anda. Copper Anda was replaced with brass oneand later stainless steel. Anda is a seer item among Brahmins. There were brassPoni in due course replaced with brass ones. My listing is the most common I saw in myearly days. Other members can add to it. Summary- The followingcopper items are covered in this posting- 1) Boiler. 2) Roofing copperplates in sanctums 3) Ura for flag masts 4) copper pots large and small 5) kasichombu 6) Copper thambalam 7) copper Bowls 8) Montha 9) copper glass 10) Anda ORIGINALLY posted on 30-8-2010.Reposted after editing and updating on 2-1-2021. R.Gopala krishnan -- 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/1111350963.1063422.1609601800635%40mail.yahoo.com.
