Madurai is the town where you first land to reach Kallupatti. Breath in this town feels like home no matter where you are coming from. You start driving to the west of Madurai, the landscape turns breathtaking, you play a playlist by Ilayaraja and it transports you into one of the Kollywood movies. 60 km away is this village, surrounded by hills called Kallupatti which translates to ‘a village surrounded by rocks’. This tiny village is between seven hills and is famous for Sathuragiri Hills close to Saptur. The hills provide an abundant variety of flora. M. Kallupatti is a village with which you will fall in love with immediately!
M. Kallupatti is in the middle of 3 different districts, Madurai, Theni, and Virudhunagar. After Independence, a lot of people migrated to this village from all three districts. This landscape was full of water and favorable for agriculture. Life flourished here.
People from 18 different castes settled here.
Agriculture was the main source of livelihood, life was pretty simple and straightforward, but people from different castes using the same resources had become a problem, the tussle to be the superior and control things was disturbing the harmony of the village.
In 1960 it did not rain at all, the natural canal providing the water to the village dried up. People were shocked and worried. The only source of livelihood was agriculture. This was a major setback.
All the people left their differences behind and came together to the canal and begged Goddess Parvati to help them. It finally rained.
That day the villagers decided to make an Amman Temple in the Canal and named it, Oda Kali Amman. ( Canal Kali Amman)
Every county in this world is identified by its culture. Villages in a country are the ones that hold their culture very strongly and hold it for ages. India is blessed with such diverse customs and cultures. We have the most number of villages and towns in the world and home to many thousand-year-old ornately sculptured temples, and every temple has its unique tradition.
This is one of them. Every year at least 10,000 people gather to pray to Kali Amman for rains, and every year during the ceremonies it rains. It's been more than 40 years, every year people gather for the village's well being. It’s a 3-day festival.
On the first day of the festival, they have a very unique practice of placing the newborn children in a line on the floor and the priest walks pass over every child, there are over a thousand newborn children participating in the ceremony which was a site we could not see anywhere else, this ceremony is called Kuli Pillai Thanduthal. People in this village perform this ceremony as a sign of thanksgiving to their God, it is said that when the mother does not have a child for a long time, they pray in this temple for a child and when they get one they bring their child to do the Kulli Pillai Thanduthal.
The second day has another ceremony called Molapari, every household in this villages sows nine grains in a mud pot a month before the festival, water it to grow and bring these pots to the festival, they go around the village with these mud pot on their heads as a part of the ceremony, as farming is their major occupation, they do this as a part of thanksgiving to their god and they believe it will make their god happy. It is said the longer the crop, the better it is for your wishes to come true.
This day also witnesses a folk dance program to entertain people.
They also do one more ceremony called Thee Chatti Thuguthal, in which the person who has prayed for any particular cause will carry a mud pot with fire in it and will go around the village. After all the ceremonies they have Aadalum Padalum in which traditional dances, songs, and stage plays are performed. When this starts every villager comes together to enjoy them and it continues all night until morning. Village people usually love to witness these performances as they can see it only once a year.
The third day is the final day where they cook Pongal and sacrifice goats. People take extra care while making the Pongal. The well-cooked rice is also a good sign that Amman is blessing you.
There are other ways people ask for wishes and if it comes true, people pick up hot vessels with fire on it and walk on fire.
A highlight of this festival is people from all the different castes in that village get along and conduct the festival without any discrimination. In India, most of the villages have severe caste systems. Each cast has its separate temple and people from other casts are restricted to enter the temple, but this village M.Kallupatti stands out amongst them by accepting everyone to get along and celebrate the festival together.
They make it more alive by their kind nature and friendly behavior. When you walk in the streets of M.Kallupatti you receive an invitation to have food in almost every house that you cross. It tells a lot about their warmth and friendliness.
The rains every year keep the village and its 10,000 people going. A belief, a ray of hope is what we need to keep going.
Photos by Vinod Kumar
Tamil Content by Arul Dhanaraj
Special Thanks to Prassana
Tamil version of the Article
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