WINNOWING SIEVE-MURAM Twodays back a lady was going through the road in front of my home telling Muram, Muram. I looked atit. It was made of split bamboo. I have already the type she was selling madeusing cane and kept in loft of work area. So I did not call her to purchasethough she was repeatedly looking at me and home.
The type of muram varies with states and use. In Kerala we get muram made ofcane or bamboo in square size with less height. To take out the mud,dust and other items after cleaning rooms using broom inside home we use smallplastic sieve. After cleaning outside to take all dried leaves and other scrapitems we use a sieve of metal and larger in size. For other uses in cleaningpaddy, rice, wheat we use the square type sieve. Now the square type has comein PVC/fibre, light weight, and giving better appearance. InTamilnadu the bamboo/cane sieve is mostly conical. Though the winnowing sieve (Muram) is NOT AGOOD OMEN, it is usedfor auspicious semi auspicious and inauspicious samskaras. Muram isalso a kitchen and agriculture item. Though use of winnow is reduced still itis available in specified shops –The earlier winnows made of split bamboo orsplit cane and washed or not washed with cow dung. For samskaras sasthrikal insist cow dung washed winnow. Now aday washing with cow dung is for namesake!! Just the sieve may smell cow dungsmell while it is new. Forremoving sweeping items muram with a slanting side is used. This is availablein plastic or tin material. Now a day stainless steel muram with handle isavailable used in the kitchen for better appearance for removing cut vegetablesetc. Muram for home use is kept in work area and outside usein some area not in front of the home. Thecaterers invariably use sieve with inthe work area for keeping many items conveniently. Onthe JATHAKARANAMNAMAKARANAM day the infant is laid in a Muram made of cane/bamboo toremove the asuddhi. In a marriage sasthrikals desire a muram to keep the itemsin a convenient manner in the mandapam. Though for video and photos many keepit slightly away or take care not to come in photographs.. The handicrafts arehaving winnow/sieve made in cane, but price is very high. During marriage orduring namakaranam, most purchase the quality winnow from handicrafts nowadays.Price is not looked in to. During srardha, for homam muram is keptfor keeping homa items. Normallyvegetables too kept in muram and preparedfor different dishes. The vegetable scraps are kept in amuram and not disposed till the srardha is over. The belief is if it is thrown,pithru may think it is an offering given to him outside. Muram is a must for inauspicious Karmas. I am not mentioning theusages here. Inagriculture for winnowing paddy, removing skin from rice etc, muram is widelyused. For drying Tamarind, provisionitems etc muram is used in homes. For drying vadams mami use the muram. Thereare some restrictions in the use of muram 1.Muram SHOULD NOT BE KEPT SLANTING. It should keepon its base only. This is followed onlyfor cane or bamboo finished one now a day. Keeping winnow slanting can bringforth sorrow in the Home. 2,Muram should not be kept in the middle of the room. It should be kept in a corner or store. This is in the normal course. During functions etc while thecentre of room is selected, winnow also has to be kept in the middle. Thereare two proverbs relating muram coming to my memory- 1. VATTIKKU VAA ADHIKAM ENNU PARANJU MURAMCHIRICHHU- Winnow laughed at Vatti, a bambooitem cylindrical and about 6” opening mouth area telling it has a wider mouth.Muram is wider and square about 2’x2’ and height of about 3 inches. The saying means the major drawbacks of self is not understood whilecriticising others. 2. MURATHIL KERI KOTTHARATHU- Should not interfere in one’s boundary. It is used oftenwhen one unwontedly interfere in another’s matters. Inthe legend of Parayi petta pandirukulam legend, Pakkanar one of the 12 sons of Vararuchi, the namboothiriBrahmin was a seller of murams after making it. Dependon occasion I have used winnow/sieve/muram. The English translation I got formuram are 1- Sieve 2- Winnow and 3Winnowing sieve on google search. Writer-R. Gopala Krishnan dated 1-4-2021. -- 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/1605330020.2075482.1617271073614%40mail.yahoo.com.
