One Up for the Kallidaikurichians

One up for the Kallidaikurichians

 Around the year 1920 a lot was happening in the political landscape. The country had been seared by the bloodbath of Jallianswala Bagh. The winds of social awakening and political change were sweeping across the country. Men and women were quietly coming in batches onto the streets, braving vicious lathi charges, even firing and going about their job of waging a non violent silent battle for their motherland. But deep, down south, in the quiet town of kallidaikurichi, away from the hurly burly of politics, life went on at an unhurried pace. Men tended the land while the womenfolk washed and cooked and young girls played Hop- Scotch on the river banks.

Elsewhere in a house in Vaithiappapuram street however life’s routine had given way to more exciting things.Preparations wre underway for the marriage of two youngsters- the eight year old Narayani with seventeen year old Sahasranamam. It was to be a grand traditional wedding- Narayani’s father Viswanathan was a man of considerable means and he was forging an alliance for his eldest daughter with a scion of the most affluent and influential family in Kallidaikurichi- the RSA family. In keeping with the stature of the two families and the traditions of the times, a five day marriage with festivities and feasting was to be held. The pandal kaal was  erected and a grand pandal was put up.  Those days, marriages were elaborately extended affairs.People and priests alike took their time in  chanting mantras and completing various rituals. One early photograph of Sahasranamam thatha shows him standing near a vintage Ford car. One can imagine the young bridegroom smartly dressed in a dashing suit going around Kallidaikurichi  perhaps in an open Ford car on the wedding eve.  Petromax lamps carried on their heads by men dressed in white twinkled along with the night stars.  Colourfully  dressed and decked women carried fruit and sweets trays, their excited voices  blending into a steady clatterwith the shrill notes of the nadaswaram.All the relatives, close and not so close gathered to usher the young couple through an endless series of nichyathartham, jaanavasam, kasiyatrai, and of couse the most important ritual, the muhurtam. Seer bhakshanams were made in fragrant ghee, distributed to the sambhandhis and partaken with relish.  Children ran around and played in wild abandon oblivious to the gentle, not so seriou rebukes of parents and elders. Silks rustled and jewellery glittered.  Clearly Kallidaikurich was in a festive mood; an important marriage was taking place.

But the child Narayani was too young to absorb it all. A precocious child, blessed with a sweet, singing voice, she was probably thinking and rehearsing some note or tune while the festivities were going on.and as if a complement to her abundant musical talents, a vocal music concert of none other than the legendary Sangeetha Kalanidhi  Kallidaikurichi Vedanta Bhagavthar was organized. Elsewhere also in Kallidaikurichi, Narayani’s cousin was also getting married on the same muhurtam.  Maha Vaidyanathaier’s kutcheri has been arranged on the occasion.  Kallidaikurichians, by nature musically inclined had gathered in large numbers partly in curious expectation to hear the great man from the more modern and culturally progressive northern parts sing. But slowly the crowd at Vaidyanathaier’s concert started thinning out. Vedantha Bhagavtar’s resonant, melodious singing was drawing the crowds.

I never found out if this was true. But the story definitely did the rounds, circulated for the most part by Gopala Thattha, a shadow character in our narrative.As Gopala Thattha would say gleefully, “ One up for the Kallidaikurichians...!”

Along with Narayani’s trousseau and seer, Gopalan, trusted lieutenent of Viswanathan Thattha accompanied the gifts and valuables to the groom’s house. In those days this was a common practice. But Gopalan Thattha stayed on in the household, living out his life under the hospitable roof of the newly weds.