Nurungukal….2…cotd…

             Ammuchechi’s documentation of the details of the yearly ritual conducted by her family in the Malayalam month ‘Kumbham’  is a piece of literature which I think the family can boast of. As there was no earlier written evidences about the origin of the event she had based the description on the basis of details passed on  mouth to mouth by her elders. Yet it has attained  authenticity of the facts described, because of her faultless comprehension of the order of events that took place traditionally. I would like to place on record here my appreciation and respects for her tenacity in offering even the minute details of the ritual  as in a record for reference for posterity. It is more or less like a code manual.

        The deity is worshipped in the form of Bhadrakali who is identified as a ferocious Goddess. Her Divine presence is felt at three places [ Edom,kovilakam and mohoorkappil] as revealed by astrologers in a Swarna Prasnam.  Edom is the ancestral Tharavd of Moopil Niars,Kovilakam is the place where Kottayum Raja used to camp during his sojourns in Pozhuthana and Mohoor Kappil is a sacred grove on a nearby hillock.It is believed that it would have originated at least about 2000 years ago. But the age of the existing trees in the grove was assessed by a forester as about 500 years and so we may have to either guess the age of the ritual as 500 years or has to doubt that the earlier trees might have withered by age. But Ammuchechy had put forth a convincing argument to believe the age as around 2000 years on the basis of some of the remnants of clay idols dug out at Mohoor Kappil. The materials used to mould the idols were a mixture known as  KOOTTU SARKARA which was popular in those days.

       Ammuchechy had recorded that Shree Veera Marthanda Kerala Varma Pazhassiraja had fought battles with the British stationed at the Kovilakam. And it was his practise to worship his beloved ancestral Gods viz. Shree PorkaliBhagavathy,Kirathamoorthy,Shree Dhara Sasthavu,Ganapathy etc. …contd…