KINAR- THE WELL Dear Friends,
In most homes for provision of water we have the wells. The wells provide ensuredwater. Many houses have municipal water connection and sumps for its storage.But if municipal water fails- for security well are dug and water availabilityis ensured. Some city homes having no space for wells, ensured water supplythrough taps stored in sump. They procure water through lorry distribution, if municipalwater fails. Normally in many homes, now withbore wells, water is drawn from bore wells and municipal water is stored in sump as reserve.Some homes have two bore wells with separate motors for more ensuring. Now most of the old homes have wells fitted with motor to pumpwater. Drawing waterfrom wells is rare to say unless the motor fails and municipal water is notthere. Even in small villages wherecommon wells are there, now a day motor is fitted in them to draw water. Now the old system of waterdrawing with buckets, rope and roller wheel all we can see in temples where forabhishekam water is to be drawn from well. For other purposeswater is stored in tanks and pumped with motor even in the same temple. Let mego in to wells and well-being. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 25-10-2011 Reposted on 11-3-2021 after editing and updating. R. Gopala Krishnan 1. Well – Location North East corner It is the practice to have thewell in the North East corner of the home. North East corner comes as MEENAM rasi and calledJalarasi. Even today, the period of borewells, the location is tried in North East corner with water diviners first andif not available North or East side is seen. If water is seen in Southern or Western side only, as a compensation awater tap is provided in the North Eastern side. This is aprinciple of Vasthu. Some people keep overhead tank in the North Eastern side. There is a firm belief, water would be available in North East corner andwater plane is there digging some depth. Update- With plot system, NE corner of a home would become south eastcorner for another home. 2. Well-auspiciousness Well is considered auspicious andpresence of divine Ganga.Water is called theertham by many people. In many places in Kerala for drinkingwell water is more used and municipal water is secondary. Where municipal wateris not available, well water is used for all purposes. In Tamilnadu, well water is sour inmost places and municipal water is moreused for drinking where available. With coming of flats, bore wellshave become essential and in bore well water since going deep sour taste is lesser. With reverse osmosis it is removed, and used for drinking. In my area most flats are not given municipal water. 3. Open wells and bore wells The open wells are dug to a depthwhere water springs are seen in 2-3 places . Here water would beoozing out at all times. Itis called urava in Malayalam. Here a plank is put over it. This is called nellipalaka. There are dimensions for wellsand steps to get in to called aranjanam in Malayalam. In the top area where soil is there,it is removed and brick work is done and plastered. The brick work goes to aconvenient height of about three feet. Wells are dug in round shape in homes. Two pillars are erected on eitherside to support a beam in which a roller(Pulley) is fitted in the middle. Ropeis put on it tying firmly one end to bucket and other end to the pillar. Thisenvisages, even by accident slip, rope would not be lost in to well. The place where a person standsand fetches water is called thalam.Normally a raised area well plastered with slope for water drain. Slightly away plants which absorb water areplanted keeping the thalam and areas near are neat. In the bore wells, top of thearea where bore well is dug is raised to a height of about one foot with brickwork, and covered with RCC slab. The leading out pipes are taken to a motorinstalled near. 4. Muttatthe cheppinu adappilla It is a kadaamchol(quiz) withanswer -WELL. There is reasoning for bringing this kadamchol. Well appeared so beautiful likecheppu. The use of term cheppu, which is for auspiciousness and usedto keep kumkum and to offer to women. Hence the divinity of well attributed toGanga. On those days open wells were not covered. 4a. today open wells For safety reasons today top ofthe well is provided with a grill frame work closing it with a removingarrangement on bolt and nuts. This facilitate cleaning etc. With an area close to the front of the well ofsize 2’x2’ has an opening arrangement on hinges in the frame work for manuallyfetching water. Most of the wells are fitted with motor for drawing water. 4b. Ground level tank. My father on getting aged, felt difficultygoing to river and facilitate easy water fetching I installed a motor and aground level water tank. He used to bathstanding on the cemented platform on one side opening tap and taking water. Inanother side a tap was provided with a smaller platform from where water wastaken to kitchen use of my brother. Even after I constructed my house withoverhead tank over chimney the arrangement continued till my brotherre-constructed the ancestral tiled house with RCC. This Ground level tank area wasalways busy with some body either brother’s family or servants or my tenantscleaning vessels, washing cloths etc. 5. Restrictions in use of well. 1. Water is normally fetched ormotor put on in the morning or evening. In the late nights or mid afternoon well is not disturbed. There is a principle of jalamuneeswar prayingin the well at that time and we would bedisturbing their prayers. Even now our workers will cleaneven sumps in the morning or about evening only considering them as well. 2. Water is never wasted. I recollectmy father warning me if we waste even abucket of water . We can use for bath, drink, cook, wash and clean. But notwaste for any reason. Water in well is considered as Lakshmi. Update- While o/H tank is overflowing, upening tap at another location,the water is used clean any area, watering plants etc. The only exemption to drain waterwas while cleaning the well. On those days all on a sudden the water used to appearmuddy with bad smell. Once the water is drained tillnellippalaka and closed, the water is drawn only next day morning. No body should go near the well and see the urava or water coming. What an irony- Next day excellentwater would be there in well. It was a practice woman havingmenses not touch the well. Now such instances are not there with motor drawingwater from well. Periodically the sides of thewell are cleaned for removing any bush growth and this was a must on thosedays. But here too getting in to well have to be occasional and NOT FREQUENT. 6. Watering Tulsi plant. It is a practice to offer waterto Tulsi from the well every day morning fetching fresh water from the well after bath. Now it is from thetap. In Many areas women do it, some areas men do it after bath. 7. Digging and closing of wells There are prescribed proceduresfor starting digging a well as well as to close a well when necessary. Normally when a big house is partitioned, the well is provided in oneperson’s area. It is an untold rule; the samecan be used by all until a new well is constructed separately by them. In manyhouses as such only a common well in one brother’s area, and shared by allexpressing their unity. However maintenance of the well is shared by all. An auspicious day is selected andmuhurta set to start the digging so that, water is seen at early depth andnumber of uravas seen soon. Even with bore wells, the day is chosen as fixed by us and they too startafter a pooja done by them. The level water is seen is informedimmediately and they go at least one hundred feet more so that while drillingpure water come with force. Normally either with open well or with borewell dig out earth is put on sides or get absorbed with soil on sides. Never isit taken away from the compound. Regarding granite broken, used formiscellaneous works in the home. 8. Growing fish It is common to grow fish in thewell. Irrespective ofcommunity it is done. It keeps the water pure in the well. I havenot felt fish floating on death etc. in the well. Even in rivers fish do notfloat on death unless artificially killed by hatching. 9. Suffocation There could be less air orsuffocation when going in to wells with more depths. Wells with a depth ofabout 20-25 feet no problems. Whatever it is EXPERIENCED PERSONS ONLY SHOULD BEPUT TO JOBS INSIDE WELL. Normally there could be morecarbon dioxide inside especially at water level. One method is to LOWER DOWN AN EMPTY KUTTA (BAMBOOBASKET) A NUMBER OF TIMES in to well till water level and dragging up. Thiswill stir the air inside well. Another is TO LOWER A TABLE FANSWITCHED ON FIRST IN TO THE WELL tying it to a rope to deep level at differentplaces inside. While the fan is switched on, air would circulate and oxygenwill be there near water level. NOW WE HAVE BATTERY OPERATED FANS. The third is GETTING IN WITH OXYGEN CYLINDER.If a well is not used for a pretty long time, these are all more importantpoints. Now we have SMALL TROLLEYS WHICHCAN BE LOWERED AND RAISED MECHANICALLY and the person can talk through mobileand many more conveniences. 10 Proverbs connected with well. 1Kinaru vettan poyi – Bhootham vannuthu polae When digging a well- all on a suddensome thing appear like Bhootham. Thismeans occurrence some thing which never expected. This occurrence can be goodor bad. Bhootham will do good and less bad things; he is not sathan. Update- In Many places in Kerala I have read naruralgas appearing. Best is to close the well. Never use the gas- as I have readfrom oil companies instruction. It may blast. 2. Kinaru vettuittae veedu vaikkavu. The first thing before startingconstruction of the house in a place, first vasthu pooja has to be performed, then well has to bedug and then only other works are to be done. If well is therealready, it has to be cleaned and made ok. If well is going to be shared, ithas to be cleaned and prayed. 3. Kinattilae vellam kori vattikkaruthu Water from the well is a reserve.It should not be dried by drawing more. This mean to say unless there isabsolutely more necessity, more water should not be drawn. Probably this may bethe reason my father used to scold when more water is drawn. 4. Kinattile vellam aarum kondupokilla. This is a saying used to tellindirectly when a newly married man/ rarely women exhibit more sexual activitybefore others in the home. -- 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/591513593.10359.1615422976537%40mail.yahoo.com.
