Voice of the Cynic: A God, Some Girls and a Court Order.

All good reads begins with a story. This is a very special blog that I wanted to write for a while so let’s begin with two great stories.

Story 1 : The Demon, the Boon and the Son of Two Men.

Eons ago, a buffalo headed she-demon named Mahishi was wrecking havoc in the peninsular India. Many heroes tried to stop her but were slain in battle because of a boon she had received. She can be killed only by the off spring of the two Elder Hindu Gods, Vishnu & Shiva. Mahishi was a sly one as back in the day, there were only two genders and it is unlikely for two men to have a kid. Unfortunately for her, Vishhnu was an even slyer one. He used his magic to become a lady named Mohini, the same avatar which will be used in many later events and seduced Lord Shiva. They hit it off and gave rise to an offspring – Ayyappan the warrior.

Ayyappan promptly set out to find the demon and slayed her in a duel. As her corpse hit the ground, a spirit arose from it and materialized into a nymph of ethereal beauty. She was a celestial spirit that was cursed to torment the earth in form of a demon. The nymph was smitten by the charisma of Lord Ayyappan and offered her hand in marriage. Lord Ayyappan was an eternal celibate born for the singular purpose of protection of his devotees and had no plans in marrying anyone, celestial nymph or otherwise but he also didn’t want to hurt the feelings of the lady. He offered her an option, he will marry her in the season (3 month period) in which no new male devotee comes to worship him. He was pretty sure that his shrine will soon be swarmed by devotees and he could drag his promise to the end of the world. The nymph accepted his proposal and decided to wait for the Lord at a nearby temple. Eons have passed and the Lord now presides over the hilly forest of Sabarimala and the lady reigns waiting for him at the adjacent temple as Malikapurathamma.

On contrary to the popular opinion of Lord Ayyappan refusing to admit women of reproductive age into his shrine, it is in honor of Malikapurathamma, the women chose not to visit Lord Ayyappa for it would be an insult to Malikapurathamma's love and sacrifice.

Story 2 : The Boy, A Pirate and a lactating Tigress.

Around eight hundred years ago, a childless King of Pandalam dynasty in South India was hunting in the Kingswood and deep in the forest he heard an infant cry. The King went searching for the child and finally found it on the banks of a small stream. Baffled at this discovery, the King picked up the infant and walked back home. Enroute he happened upon an old ascetic and asked if someone around have misplaced an infant. The old monk smiled and asked the King to take the baby home and foster him and when the boy turns twelve, you will know who he is. Most men would have been skeptical about this bizarre prophesy, but our King is not most men. He took the baby home where he grew up as a prince named Manikanda.

The boy was a charismatic fellow well trained in martial arts and worthy of being a prince. At that time a dreaded pirate named Vavar was terrorizing the coast and the King dispatched Manikanda who was still a boy to take care of the crisis. Manikanda challenged the pirate to a one on one fight and disarmed him quickly. Impressed by the boy’s skills, Vavar joined Manikanda as his friend and lifelong companion and now resides at Sabaimala where he has his own shrine. Years later the King decided to crown Manikanda as the Crown Prince but the Queen and the ministers did not want that to happen. They somehow forced the King to sent Manikanda to collect milk from a lactating tigress to make a medicine for the queen. The sheer logistics of the project seems to be impossible and chances of a gruesome death certain, but Maikanda decided to rise up to the challenge. He marched up into the forest and a few hours later returned home, riding a lactating tigress. The entire court bowed down to this feat and they understood that this boy is divine in birth. He revealed himself to be an avatar of Lord Ayyappan and walked back into the ancient ruined temple at Sabarimala. The King rebuilt he temple to its former glory and Lord Ayyappan now resided there as an eternal celibate warrior God.

Lores aside, the temple deep in the jungle was rediscovered few hundred years ago and very few pilgrims went there due to the difficult access. The priests used to trek through the forest for the necessary rituals during auspicious dates and the temple was left to the wilderness for most of the time. In 1950, the temple was attacked by unknown assailants who torched the inner sanctum and desecrated the idol. This lead to widespread protests lead by various Hindu organizations of the date and revived the concept of united Hinduism in Kerala. Ayyappa Seva Sangom, rose to prominence and the temple was rebuilt in a grand scale. The rituals become more elaborate and a torrential pilgrim flow began. Over the decades, the infrastructure grew to accommodate the increasing population at the cost of the environment and the shrine is now considered to have the largest annual pilgrim flow in the world.

History scholars have found various relations of the deity Lord Ayyappan with other historical and mythical figures. The Tamil God Ayyannar, a horse riding warrior is often considered to be the same as Lord Ayyappan. The Buddhist cults consider Ayyappan to be a Buddhist creation based on his yogic meditative posture and the slogan Swamiyee Saranam Ayyapa’s similarity to Sangham Saranam Gacchami.

Lord Ayyappan’s lores are scare in Northern Ithihasa-Puranas and it can be assumed that he is a true Dravidan contribution to the Hindu Pantheon, probably the greatest. He encompasses all the virtues of Hinduism with universal inclusiveness, moral principles, dharma and justice. He is truly secular in nature; the kind of secularism where all religions are welcomed and not a communist secularism where all religions are to be abhorred. Among all, I consider his ability to unite the otherwise shredded Hindu community as his greatest virtue. Casteism is the most powerful dividing force within the Hindu community and many temples in Kerala had prevented the so called lower caste from entering or worshipping there. In case of Sabarimala, to the best of my knowledge, there were no such restrictions recorded in history. Either our Marxist historians failed to comprehend the importance of this hilly shrine to fabricate a story or truly there was none. If there is any such incident reported, please enlighten me.

Activists escorted by the police up the hill

The biggest accusation about this shrine is its stiff opposition to entry of women of reproductive age into its premise. The conservatives say that the temple has its rule, so follow it. The liberals say that it’s a demeaning, discriminatory rule so change it. This quarrel is probable the greatest threat faced by both the temple and the communal harmony of the sate in a long time.

Protests against the court verdict

A religion is a myth, story that is believed and followed by a large group of people that enables them to identify complete strangers and accept them as brethren. A Muslim can greet any one with Islamic dress/mannerism with ‘Aslamu alaikum’ and will be replied by ‘Wa-Alaikum-Salaam’ and an instant kinship will be established. Any Christian can sport a crucifix and be identified by another Christian who firmly believes that the son of God, Jesus of Nazareth had born, lived and died among men, for men. They also believe that he arose three days later and ascends into heaven and they await his return upon the Rapture. Both the Muslim and Christian follow a collective myth which holds them together because they believe in common scriptures and norms.

When a devotee goes on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala, he like the million others believes in the myth of Lord Ayyappan. Their collective imagination is what gives manna to the deity. They can say that he is a warrior God who resides in that hilly shrine and listens and answers their prayers. They also know that he is an eternal celibate and Lady Malikappuram awaits him in the adjacent temple. The entire fiction even though is as firm as Peter the rock is made of a pack of cards.

Has anyone actually seen or Jesus rise out of the tomb and have irreproachable evidence for it? No. Has anyone unquestionably documented Prince Maninaknadan milking a tigress? Also no. Yet these are pillars of his myth just like the virginal birth of Jesus and eternal celibacy of Ayyappan.

If you are a true devotee, you will swallow the myth wholesome and if you would like to ignore a part of it, you are just like a kid reading a comic; enjoying the part you like while skipping the inconvenient pages. The Honorable Supreme Court had thrown open the doors of the shrine to all devotees, ladies included but in turn have created the perfect paradox.

If you are a devotee, you will want to visit Sabarimala, but if you are a lady devotee in the menstrual age, you show your devotion by not visiting Sabarimala.

In conclusion, I need to remind myself that the only thing constant in this world is change and what doesn’t change will soon be forgotten or thrown away. Hundred years is a very small time in the epoch of Hinduism. It had endured both military and ideological invasions in the past from Buddhists, Jains, Ajeevikas, Muslims, and Inquisitors yet it stands strong. This so called revolution too shall pass; the shrine may become accessible to ladies or it may continue as a masculine bastion but Lord Ayyappan will endure and so would Hinduism.

And a word to activists, communists and everything in between, religious systems have been challenged and changed not by court orders, laypeople or by hedonistic atheists but by spiritual truth seekers within the system. It was Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda and Sree Narayana Guru who stood steadfast on the principles of Hinduism with Arya Samaj, Brahma Samaj, Ramkrishna Mission and Sree Narayana Dharma Parripala Yougam among others who challenged, molded and created the Hinduism we see today and not by some opportunistic activists and their ilk.