Flowers

Flowers play an important role in the life of women who are living in Tamil Nadu. More than gold, flowers are considered as the best thing in the life of a woman. Right from the day a girl attains her puberty, she is always related with the freshness and fragrance of the flowers. A girl in her teens is expected to wear flowers on her hair every day in the evening. In the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, a bride to be is expected to decorate her plaits with strands of jasmine every day. Having flowers every day helps to cool the body of the girl and also it helps her to get ready for her married life.

Wearing perfumed flowers every day in her plaits helps her hair to get the natural fragrance. This natural fragrance is believed to bring success to her married life and also help her to start her family soon. If the family of the bride groom lives at the same place, the blood relations of the bride groom go and see the bride to be with strands of fresh flowers. Bringing in fresh flowers is considered to be a token of love.

In a household in Tamil Nadu, every day, a husband is expected to get a strand of jasmine flowers for his wife when he returns home from office or his business. The traditional belief related to flowers helps to build a healthy relationship between the husband and the wife.

A girl from Tamil Nadu will be happier if her spouse or her fiancée gifts her with a strand of jasmine flower than any other thing. Flowers express love in a subtle way that will reach the hearts.

Love for spouse

In the modern world, every one checks for compatibility between lovers by checking with their sun signs, moon signs and numerology. Some people go to the extent of checking with their number vibration and their name numbers.

 

The ancient tamilian followed a simple method to check for the compatibility and suitability between prospective young lovers and newly married couples. This is a small, exciting exercise that young people always love to do during family functions, marriages and other types of get together.  Still in Tamil households that live in towns and villages, never allow their teenage girls and boys to have thamboolam. Thamboolam can be chewed only by married men and women. In every Tamil marriage, thamboolam takes an important role as it is auspicious.

 

Every guest after eating the wonderful lunch served at the wedding looks for the thamboolam. Middle aged men and women sit together and talk about every thing under the sun while chewing the thamboolam.  Mixing for a thamboolam reflects the personality of the person who prepares the thamboolam. Everyone has a different way of preparing a thamboolam. Some people may prefer to have more number of betel leaves, some may prefer to add more areca nut and some may prefer to have more white lime added to the thamboolam. The perfect combination of betel leaves, areca nut and white lime or chunnambu helps to bring the perfect color. Depending on the color, love for spouse can be found out.

 

If a young girl gets the perfect red color, it shows that her spouse loves her more. If a young boy gets the perfect red color, it shows that his spouse loves him more. If both do not get the perfect color, the compatibility between the two will be a balanced one. A bride is much appreciated if she is able to prepare the thamboolam with a perfect combination of betel leaves, areca nut and white lime.

 

In a Tamil household, a mother usually teaches her daughter how to make the perfect combination. City bred mothers may not know all these things, but mothers who are bread in towns and villages are well aware of this tradition. Let me share the secret of preparing a perfect thamboolam. It starts with the selection of tender betel leaves. If you select the betel leaves which are not tender, the thamboolam may taste sharper and can affect the taste buds of the tongue. Areca nut is now available in small packets.   The whole areca nut is broken into small pieces and mixed with different flavors. The amount of areca nut may differ from person to person. The same goes with the addition of white lime or chunnambu. It is always good to just add a small pinch of white lime. The correct addition of white lime brings the perfect color after chewing the thamboolam.

 

I remember how my grandmother prepared the thamboolam to eat after her lunch in the afternoons. Elderly people always have thamboolam after their lunch as it can avoid indigestion problems and also helps the digestion.  Choose the tender betel leaves. Turn the betel leaves and strip away the middle veins in the betel leaves. Arrange the betel leaves one by one. Apply a pinch of white lime in the last leaf. Place the sweetened areca nut powder on the first leaf.

 

Fold the leaves together into one or two folds. Put it into your mouth and chew. You must not chew and swallow the whole lot. Swallow only the juice. You can spit out the end paste of the betel leaves. This is the correct way of having a thamboolam. Too much of chewing betel leaves with areca nut powder and white lime may induce mouth ulcers. If you are going to have the thamboolam once a day, it helps you in the best way. Many people have the habit of adding sweetened tobacco along with the thamboolam. This can induce severe mouth ulcers which can finally end in cancer of the mouth. Too much of thamboolam can also bring the appetite down. This habit can slowly develop into an addiction which may require proper medical treatment.

Tulsi or Basil plant

The rich foliage with a subtle fragrance is a sight to see. Every independent household in Tamil Nadu has a Tulasi plant (basil) at their backyard. Young girls and women of Tamil Nadu follow it as a ritual to worship Tulasi every day. Every morning and evening a small mud lamp will be lit beside the Tulasi plant. People believed Tulasi pooja will bring prosperity and wealth to their household.

 

There are two types of tulasi plants, Krishna Tulasi and Vishnu Tulasi. Krishna Tulasi is a plant with rich green foliage and looked fresh and healthy. Vishnu Tulasi is dark green with a shade of red. Tulasi is an herbal plant that has medicinal value. Every South Indian household knows the simple treatment of boiling some tulasi leaves in water and drinking that water lukewarm will cure cold and sore throat. I remember once I drank only tulasi water and got cured of my high fever. But it is wonderful to note here that Tulasi helps to be a natural birth controller. If men will have tulasi leaves daily, it can induce sterility and make the person sterile. I don’t remember when I started to do my Tulasi pooja.

 

I had been doing it for years until we moved on to the apartments where we live now. Every day after bath, I will first water the Tulasi plant. Then I will sprinkle water around the plant and draw the specific kolam for the day. I will fetch some flowers for my tulasi plant and lit the lamp beside it. I will light a perfume stick or an agarpathi and placed it in the soil near the plant.

 

I loved to see the tulasi plant in the evening with the little mud lamp beside. When I was working as a teacher, one of my colleagues arranged for the Tulasi wedding at her home. The entire home was decorated for the wedding. She got new wedding attire for the tulasi plant and her groom Lord Krishna. A priest from the nearby temple came to conduct the marriage. After chanting mantras, he made her tie the mangal sutra to the tulasi plant. Only girls and women were invited for the tulasi marriage and she served a wonderful dinner after the wedding.

http://www.forumforhinduawakening.org/living/tulasi-vivaha

 

Agni Chatti (Fire Pot)

 

 

Right from my childhood, I have watched men and women carrying the Agni chatti or the Fire pot to the temple of the local Mariamman temple during the annual festival.   The men and women carried their fire pots all the way from their home to the temple.  They will not feel the heat of the fire though they were carrying them on their hands.

 

I got the opportunity to carry one of those fire pots.   The elderly lady whom my mother knew well asked me to carry her fire pot to the temple.  With the doubt if I could manage till the temple, I took the pot from her hand.

 

What a surprise!!  The fire pot glowing with fire from the fire wood felt cool against my palm.  This is really a wonder.   I smiled at my mother.   She told that the fire pot showed the blessings from the Goddess Mariamman. That is the moment that gave me the evidence.  God exists in this world.

 

Vinayagar Chathurthi

 

 

One more celebration that highlights the traditional value of Tamilians.

 

Lord Vinayaga has been considered as the diety who helps people to thrash hurdles and achieve success in all endeavours. 

 

In the month of August-September, the festival is celebrated with more colors and varieties of food prepared and offered to get the blessings from Lord Vinayaga.

 

People at home and temples prepare food that are considered sacred to be presented to Lord Vinayaga.

 

 

Navarathiri - 9 days of colors

 

 

Every year people in Tamil Nadu celebrate 9 days of colors enriched with fragrance of flowers and food.

 

This is another festival that marks the creativity of Tamil people.

 

Margazhi - Kolams

 

 

The Tamil month 'Margazhi' that comes during December-January every year brings into every Tamil household prosperity with mesmerizing patterns and colors of Kolams. 

 

Kolam is a divine art that gives a woman the freedom to express herself in different patterns of kolams.  This ancient art with intricate patters and designs using curved lines, straight lines and circles is a blessing for the Tamil community.

 

Forget about the houses in the cities. Every home at a town or a city never forgets to welcome this month of chilliness with warm and bright colored Kolams that vows to bring in prosperity to the house where the woman lives.

 

 

Jallikattu

 

  Bull Taming - A Pongal Event

 

Jallikattu or Eruthazhuvuthal, the traditional Bull Taming event, dates back to the Tamil Classic Period (400-100 CE).  Jallikattu is an annual event where men try to tame and hug the bull and has been a part of the traditional celebrations of the four-day harvest Tamil Nadu festival, Pongal.

 

The word Jallikattu has two components, Jalli also known as salli or kasu, which translates into coins, and kattu which means bundle or pouch.  This is a reference to a yellow punch of coins, which is tied to the bull’s horns.  The sport is also called as Eruthazhuvuthal, which means ‘hugging the bull’.

 

The sport, which is played on the third day of Pongal (Mattu Pongal), has a natively reared bull being left free in an arena. Groups of people enter this arena and try to tame the bull with their bare hands. The participants try to do this by holding the bull by its tail and horns.  The bulls are specially prepared for this event by various farmers.  The bulls are often taken for swims to strengthen the legs, and various measures are taken to make the bull strong and healthy. Bulls are bred specifically for the event.

 

The calves chosen to become Jallikattu bulls are fed a nutritious diet so that they develop into strong, sturdy animals.  The bulls are made to swim for exercise.  The calves, once they reach adolescence, are taken to small Jallikattu events to familiarize them with the atmosphere. Specific training is given to vadam manju virattu bulls to understand the restraints of the rope.  Apart from this, no other training is provided to Jallikattu bulls. Once the bulls are released, then instinct takes over.

 

There are three versions of Jallikattu:

 

Manju Virattu

This version takes place mostly in the districts of Madurai, Pudukottai, Theni, Thanjavur and Salem and has been popularized by television and movies.  It involves the bull being released from an enclosure with an opening. As the bull comes out of the enclosure, one person clings to the hump of the bull.  The bull in its attempt to shake him off will bolt (in most cases), but some will hook the man with their horns and throw him off.  The rules specify that the person has to hold on to the running bull for a predetermined distance to win a prize.

 

In this version, only one person is supposed to attempt catching the bull. But this rule being strictly enforced depends on the village where the event is conducted and more importantly, the bull itself.  Some bulls acquire a reputation that alone is enough for them to be given an unhindered passage out of the enclosure and arena.

 

Vaeli Virattu

 

This version is more popular in the districts of Sivagangai, Manamadurai, and Madurai.  The bulls are released into open ground without any restrictions (no rope or determined path). The bulls once released run in any direction.  Most don’t even come close to any human.  But there are a few bulls that don’t run but stand their ground and attack anyone who tries to come near them. These bulls will “play” for some time providing a spectacle for viewers, players and owners alike.  The magnificence of such bulls cannot be described.

 

Vadam Manju Virattu

 

Vadam means rope in Tamil.  The bull is tied to a 50 ft long rope and is free to move within this space. A team of 7 or 9 members attempt to subdue the bull within 30 minutes.  This version is very safe for spectators as the bull is tied and spectators are shielded by barricades. (Courtesy: Heritage Madurai)

Indian Traditional Medicine For Corona

 
       Tamil traditional medicines go a long way in protecting the physical and mental health of human beings.

 

https://siddham.in/siddha-approach-on-novel-corona-virus-or-covid-19

 

 

Imprint

Text: Kalai Selvi Arivalagan
Publication Date: 04-02-2011

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
For my ancestors who knew life better than the people who live now.