VAZHI (വഴി) Dear friends,
When I purchased a plot measuring1.5 grounds in Chennai, by the side of the road laid with Jalley (small piecesof granites, a mud road, the owner told me, sir it is 50’ road, would expandvery much. It was in 2002. I smiled. The only difference when I constructed myhome in 2006 was it became blacktopped road. In the following years as he said,the area improved very much. Before Covid 19 period, it was common many ask wayto interior areas, to me while near the front of home. Recently the road itself expanded astwo way road. Water harvesting lines were provided much earlier. I thought today my posting can beabout Path- Vazhi. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 25-5-21 1 Vazhi as a noun Vazhi as a noun means path or wayin Tamil and Malayalam. The way could be through earth, water or air. Our epicRamayana itself has many references of travelling by water and air. Rivercrossing and travelling would have been very common even in Tretayuga. The story of sage Parasaracrossing river Ganga and in relation with Matsysa Gandhi birth of sageVedavyasa appears in DwaparaYuga. Sakunthala going to meet KingDushyantha crossing river and missing her ring while wading water mayimmediately come to many of us. Kubera was having Pushpakavimanaand it was snatched by Ravana and he became the owner. In a recent postingabout interesting places related to Ramayana in Srilanka, I read there are locations nowtoo of air strips preserved, existed inthose days of epic. In the story of Krishna, asGurudakshina, sage Sandipani wanted to redeem his lost son from Sankhuchooda,an asura. He was living inside the sea. Krishna went in deep water of oceankilled Sankuchooda and got the son and took the conch he was keeping. Krishnanamed it as Paanchajanyam. There are references of Kings whocould travel to heavenand return also at their will. One such was king Pururuvas. He met in one such journey Urvasi is gettingattacked and saved her. He developed love with her and later married her. 1a.Nokkata nammutae margae kitakkunna markata neeyangu marikkita sata.. The above lines are from Kunchannambiar’s Kalyanasougandhikam. One day during forest lifeDroupadi felt a rare fragrance of flower. She desired to have it. Probablybeing sturdier Bhimasenacould have been felt more suited to get the flower going through forests.Bhimsena started having his Gada (mace) in hand. On the way he found an eldermonkey lying across keeping its tail across the path. The elder monkey on arguments finally asked Bhimsenato remove his tail from the path and take his path. Bhimsena could not move acentimetre of the tail. He felt something unusual with the monkey, andregretted for the pride, the monkey (Hanuman) reveals to him as his elder half-brother, shows himthe path to get the flower. Whenever there are difficult problemson account of this elders used to say- Similar to Hanuman’s tail. Probably on account of this acustom to adorn kumkum on the tail of Hanuman is prevalent to remove obstaclesin families. 2.Path The initial paths would have beenby walk only. When many people walk, a vazhitthadam is formed by the foot prints. After people started moving onanimals like horse, the foot prints might have been still clearer on thesurface. Similarly even in suburban areas we can see path created by movementof cart or two wheelers/car/tractor now if we observe while going in trains. 3.Surface road and water way. For going to certain areas surfaceroad could be very long where as a lake crossing could be done within half anhour. In such locations we can see many resorting to water boats. Few yearsback I had a boat trip from Kumarakam to Thanneermukkam for about half an hourto reach cherthala. Total time taken from Kottayam was about 1.5 hours. If itwould have been by bus, at least 3 hours required. 4.Waterway and airway. Recently I read through internetship service between Muscat and Cochin is going to restart. Though the shipfare could be very less, I thought for a while about the patience of peoplecould be there now. On those days only sea paths werethere, there was no alternative, people had to travel through ships. Cochin toLakshadeep now too ships operate though daily flights are there to Kavaratthi. 5.Highways The development of national andstate high ways has made road transport more safe, comfortable and quick. Inaddition new vehicles having more comforts and safety. Really it is enjoyableto go through NH at many areas, having road divider, planted trees, wellmaintained black topping etc. Some state highways nearTirunelveli excel NH. 6.Bye pass roads. In the national high ways we havebypass of cities, if one need not have any work there. Such bypass reducejourney time very much. 7.Vazhiyambalam. (Satram- choultry) On earlier days shelters wereprovided annexed to temples for rest. People travelling either cart or walkused to rest in these shelters. Little more developed ones were the publicchoultries. One such old choultry still exist is Mangamma satram in Maduraiclose to Railway station While people behave haphazardlynow too the phrase- Ithenthasathrama (Is it choultry?) is used. Irrespective of position, wealthand health and age, I have seen pilgrims taking rest in the shelter at Marakoottam afterclimbing Neelimalai on the way to Sabarimalai. 8.Legend of Sadavudayarkoil. Centuries ago one iyer was takinghis daughter for delivery to her home atAmbur from Kalakkad. He was taking her in a bullock cart. On the way the girldeveloped pain. He stopped the cart and asked her to rest a while. Our iyerfound a light at distance. He thought of getting the lady for help and startedwalking in the direction of light telling the daughter accordingly. The girl was developing pain. An agedlady came and comfortably performed delivery of the girl and made her rest andleft. Our Iyer brought the lady by the time with panic and tension in his face.He found his daughter delivered and the infant near. He asked the girl with surprise-who looked after your delivery? The girl looked at the lady brought by him. Shesaid- Only the samelady you brought. While Iyer was thinking of the miracle, the ladyhe brought disappeared. The iyer felt Devi kataksham onlyhas carried out the safe delivery. From then onwards Devi is worshipped there.The lady brought had lengthy hair of glittering like gold with jatai. Hence thedeity is PONCHTAICHHI. She is also called Jadaiudayal. Her son is satavudayar anincarnation of Lord Dharamasastha. Abhishekam is performed and pooja isconducted with sanklapam for wellbeing of family members. It is a practice tonote down all members family name, gothra without forgetting. There is a marbleinscription DETAILING DEITIES on the occasion of Kumbhabhishekam performed,affixed in the front. We can see the temple Sadavudayar koilis still in the midst of paddy fields. Earlier only walking path, later cart path and now motorable path is there. More than 50 % of people having Kuladeivam assadavudayar come there either in own vehicle or hired vehicle. Those fromdistance come by train or flight and hire local vehicles. The legend I have wrote here is heard fromGomurathar and Temple priests. 9.Kurukku vazhi It is a short cut. There arepeople always thinking either via ashort way or via a long way. They would not think normal way. There are a few every where including our groups. 10 Vazhikanakku In Mathematics there arequestions, answer to be given by step by step. Full marks were awarded by teachersfor correct steps. If one or two steps goes wrong 50% marks were given tostudents during examination 11 Asking path Either in cities or in towns orvillages while people going first time, path is asked to some person on the wayor to auto drivers especially in cities. Google maps may help to reach approximatelocation now 12Marubhoomiyilae Oalazm (creek) It was a wonder to see the Dubaicreek for me on my visit. I am not sure anywhere else there is a watertransport corporation like in Kerala. The boats almost appear like a bus ininternal appearance A re-written posting of an old one on 30-10-2013Gopala 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/1682307434.3040008.1621941267562%40mail.yahoo.com.
