A Cottage in Swami Hills -18. Dasara Days

A COTTAGE IN SWAMI HILLS*

18. DASARA DAYS

My grandfather was a Devi Bhaktha and he worshipped the Devi through a form of worship called Sri Vidya which is a highly respected and admired path of worship. He got initiated into Sri Vidya when he was  a student in Presidency and he started performing Pujas to the deity (a picture of Rajarajeswari) in the hostel Later when he shifted to Kumbakonam, he made a systematic arrangement for conducting the Navarathri Puja which is the most important festival for all Devi Bhakthas. He used to put one anna for every rupee ( comes to about 6%) earned by him as a lawyer in a silver box and he would utilise this amount for the Puja. He would spend that amount for Laksharchana Puja celebrations. He would not take the money from any one else for the Puja.

When I was studying, the preparation for Dasara would start atleast  a month earlier.  This included cleaning up of the vessels, buying Puja items like rosewater,sandal etc,informing the flowerman, organising for the daily Veda Parayanam etc.  I had mainly three duties to perform every day during Navarathri.
Every day, my grandfather would perform puja  for five kumaris and give them blouse piece. I had to make sure that an equal number of girls come every day so that the group is manageable. I took this opportunity to show my "importance". I used to sit  in the front portion of the house and attend to the young girls probably five or six year old and sometimes their mothers. I would look at my diary very carefully and tell them "Look, Mami, She can come day after tomorrow only. We are already full today and tomorrow".  I attached a lot of importance to doing this as I felt I was bringing order to an other wise informal affair. I sometimes gave them a chit with my signature and date and gave it to them with an advice."Please bring this without fail".  After some time, I noticed that this system was slowly getting diluted. To my shock, the "mamis" approached the inner circle and got things done quickly. I would find sometimes the girl who had been asked to come next day was happily sitting there on that day. Sometimes, they came for some other purpose (like they brought some flowers) and they were asked to sit for Kumari Puja without any information to me. Then, I realised that it did not matter whether I gave those chits or not. But, I did not stop this practice as it gave me semblance of some power. Every girl who came must have been laughing behind my back.

Second duty was that I should sit and sort out the flowers. The flowerman Narayanaswami brought a lot of flowers. I had to sit in the morning and evening and sort them. Maru has to be separate. Rose or Arali separate and white flowers separate. My grandfather would perform atleast five archanas (Laitha sahasranamam) in the morning and five in the evening so that he completes laksharchana by Vijaya Dasami day. He would perform Kunkumarchana for the first three or four. The last one would be with flowers. It used to be a grand sight to see flowers nicely put in different colours one by one in layers.

The third duty was to give dakshina to the sastrigals who would recite Sama vedham. They would come by 7 PM and start their parayanam. They would close by 9 PM. At the stroke of 9, I would come in Pattu Veshti take a plate with betel, Banana and some coins and give them Dakshinai and do namaskarams to each one. I also used to serve prasadhams to them. Apart from sama vedha parayanam, one sastrigal would come at 6.30 PM and start Sri Suktham. I used to call him "Gandhadhwaraam" by the line he used to tell loudly in Sri Suktham. He used to virtually mumble other lines. he used to repeat the Sri Suktham 32 times. every day. I also had to coordinate with Ayyaswamy sastrigal who would come for Ramayana Parayanam at 4 P.M by arranging some thing he would like to have as prasad for Hanuman.

It rained heavily during the Navarathri days and still the preparations went on every day for all these multivarious activities. I do not understand how the machinery worked so efficiently with no friction whatsoever. It is truly the indication of a Divine will.  

My grandfather would finish the Puja in the daytime by 10 but at night some times it would end later than 10 PM. This is because he would see all visitors and give them prasad and make them feel at home. Though he would not speak during Navarathri Puja time, he would write and show me what is to be done. This took time. Also in the night, he would ask my mother to recite either Mantra maatruka pushapamala or Chamundeswari Mangalam. He would take food without salt in those days. I also used to share the same food. I was not being religious. I just thought I should eat what my grandfather ate. My grandfather wrote about my determination to eat without salt to my uncle in US  parodying a Tamil phrase thus   " சேகர் உப்பில்லாமல்  கலக்கஞ்சி குடித்தான் " . He was always dressed in saffron colour like sanyasis during the Puja. This was intriguing to me as no grahastha is allowed to wear kashayam. My grandfather got his Kashayam (saffron dyed veshtis) from Kanchi Matham and he used to wear the dress like any other swamigal. On some days, he would finish his morning Puja and go to court. I wonder how he had the energy to go and attend to his professional work after an exhaustive puja schedule. On the days he had no work in court, he used to spend the dasara afternoons by reading spiritual articles. he wrote the commentary  to Lalitha Sahasranamam during those days. I had assisted him in referring to books at times. He did not sleep in the afternoons.

On a friday during the Navarathri my grandfather would perform Suvasini Puja. Here, I was having the least role as my grandmother selected nine sumangalis sometimes ten for the Puja. They were served the Lunch first and given all gifts and then only we used to eat. Ladies used to sing and in general involve themselves in loud discussions. During the navarathri, some of them would sing. I recall one lady Dharmaambaal wife of our clerk Iyaswamy Iyer used to sing the same song in all the years.

பொட்டி நெறய பூக்கொணர்ந்து பூசித்தேன் அம்மா !!

after the pujas were over, he would write the archanas completed with a white chalk on the back side of the cupboard. He was meticulous that he used to keep the preceding years' counts so that he could compare the progress.

Saraswathi Puja was a grand affair. We used to keep all the musical instruments, Sloka books and other books also. My brothers used to get involved and they used to bring so many books from different cupboards for Puja. In fact , the whole hall was full of books. I used to perform the Saraswathi Puja as my grandfather would be busy in the Laksharchanai. 

On vijayadasami day, my grandfather would give us the books after the Punar Puja for the goddess Saraswathi. he used to ask each one of us to tell one number. the moment we tell that number, he would open the Saundarya Lahari and tell us to recite that sloka daily some specific number of times. The final Puja used to be grand with arathi and some strange and somewhat odd ritual of mixing all coloured rice and other  condiments in a plate to offer Goddess. This ritual did not appeal to me.In my mind our Deity was Rajarajeswari, the Queen of the Universe and our worship to her should also be appropriate to Her Royal taste.
Then he took bath in the tap opposite the Goddess thus bringing the festivity to the end. At that time, some ladies took arathi and one or two times, some ladies acted as if they were "possessed" . They danced (சாமியாடுவது)  and fore told some events.  One lady said that my grandfather's mother had come on her. Ponnamma Mami, the cook used to be the person to attend to them with a disbelieving look (she used to say "oh, again she has started this drama!!) and bring them down to the earth after performing arathi or giving milk etc. (மலையேறுவது).

On Vijayadasami day in the evening, we would go and see the different temple deities being taken on procession for the "ambu poduthal"   We used to stand in front of a house in Mahamakam street belonging to one Balu and watch all the deities cross his house. One day, we got the news that Balu passed away. My grandfather felt sad as Balu must have been only 40 at that time. He said "The breadwinner for the family has gone". We lost our "vantage point"for the procession with his passing away.  My grandfather used to call this walk "Vijya Yathra" and our yathra in the succeeding years was only up to the next street.

In 1968, I was in PUC. My grandfather completed Vijaya Dasami Puja and we departed the same day  (October 24th) to Tiruchi along with my uncle (Ravi) in his car. It was ostensibly for  some medical check up and my grandfather was to return in a week. He did not return. He passed away on November 24th at Tiruchi after a brief illness. Kamalam Athai  (She appears in the blog A cottage in Swami Hills  Chapter 7 ) pointed out that had he remained in Kumbakonam, he would have lived as Devi would not have allowed him to go after all the Pujas he performed. I think she was right. His world revolved around Devi. All the rest was secondary to him.

The Veda parayanam and the names of the Goddess repeated during the archanas still resound in my ears after almost sixty years.  I remember the lines Wordsworth wrote

"The music in my heart I bore
Long after it was heard no more"

* Cottage in swami hills refers to the house in which we lived in Kumbakonam. This phrase was used once by my grandfather when I asked him that as some  people go in summer to Kodaikanal and Ooty where they have a cottage whether we would also be able to go and stay like them one day. My grandfather replied that he already has a cottage near swami Hills (swamimalai) and he referred to his house as the cottage.