THIRI- TURN –WICK The word Thiri in Malayalam means wick and a command toturn and also to twist.
Washed cotton clothing like dhoti was used to prepare wicksfor Lamps. If the wick is burning more elders used to ask- Is it fire ball? Wereduce burning using some small sticks like matchstick wood portion. Now we get ready made wicks from bleached threads and alsoby twisting cotton in provision shops. For adjusting the wicks small metallic stickswith holder is there. For fireballs onlywashed cotton is used. For this also now in metal stores/general storesbleached cotton is available. For normal lamps burning on gingili oil, coconut oil, neemoil etc. cotton wicks are used. Somehow ground nut or refined oil is not used for lamps. Iam not sure of the reasoning. Recentlyat Kollimalai we could get some leaves, which could be twisted and used aswick. They demonstrated, we brought and first two days it could be used, laterit could not be used as wick. Some use the fibre from plantain stem twisted aswick. Normally deepam is lighted in the morning and evening inhomes in the pooja room or entrance depends on the practice. In my home at Keralahaving no pooja room, it was practice to light before Ara in the brassNilavilakku. Normal practice is to light lamp having lighted wick towards theeast side. For each deepam two wicks are to be used. It is the belief- ifsingle wick is used the person would be separated. Now in Chennai, nilavilakkuis lighted in Pooja room and small lamps lighted at Entrance and inTulasithara. Wicks using cloth are used in temples for chuttu vilakku,Aalila vilakku, etc. For internal use cotton wicks are used now a day. For cultural performances like Phatakam, Thullal, Kootthu,kathakali etc. lighting nilavilakku is a must. Except kathakali otherperformances may be in the day, still nilavilakku is a must. This would be anormal Nilavilakku. For kathakali, the thick and long wicks are usedfor deepam, giving lighting in the performing area also. Kathakali vilakkualias Aattavilakku is the biggest Nilavilakku. Some temples have nilavulakku having 3 branches and lightall. Some temples have nilavilakku representing deities (saptha mathrus). Duringauspicious, semi auspicious and in auspicious functions nilavialkku is lighted.Never adeepam is lighted facing south including death For turning- to animals, small kids etc. as acommand the word thiri is used. Thiri isalso used a command to twist. ANTHITHIRI is a word meaning to light deepamin the twilights of evenings and mornings. However it is used in more contextsfor evenings. It is a must to light lamps in Kavu and tulasithara in theevenings. For Kavu inKerala young women often light lamps (They should not be ininconvenience periods). I am not sure why young women and not elderly ladieslight the lamp in Kavu. Machine made special wicks are used for Kerosene lamps andwick stoves. Thriyata was a circular product like athick ring to keep oval pots over them. Now we get in metal/plastic such items.When we go to purchase amud pot, the sellers themselves give the ring to keep it nowadays. For making ropes the coconut fibres are twisted to yarnsand again they are twisted. The process is called kayaru pirikkal/thirikkal. (Making rope) There are some people while talking to others after a timeasking others to repeat to them. It is annoying nature. It is told as thirichuparayuka. There are some others talk of a matter with twists from their imagination.The matter occurred would be a silly thing. One has to be very careful withthem. Patients in hospitals are advised to lye to either side toavoid bed sours. This is called thirinju kedakkal. Writer- R. GopalaKrishnan dated 23-8-2015. Reposted after editing on 16-4-2021 -- 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/951194501.2016035.1618565977096%40mail.yahoo.com.
