Kollemcode, Thookam and Me

If you know me in person you might be remembering me always talking about my birth place, Thookam festival and Kollemcode Goddess. This is the festival time in my home town. All kollemcodians are prepared themselves to enjoy the ten days celebration.

Pic : Thookam Close shot




I will give a brief idea about my favorites for better understanding if you don’t know about it.

Kollemcode

Kollemcode is a small village in TamilNadu, India. It is bordered by Arabian Sea on one end and Kerala in the other side. It’s my home town. Kollemcode was once under Travancore province, so the custom and culture followed here is more of Kerala and maximum of Kollemcodians understand, speak and write Malayalam. One among them is me :). My mother tongue, the subject which I have taken as First Language in my school is Malayalam. Not just Malayalam, the vaastu(architecture) style of old buildings, temples has a Kerala touch here.

Kollemcode is a land of religious harmony. It is blessed with fields which resemble Green Carpets, coconut trees, gentle breeze from the sea and hardworking people. I love my hometown more than any place in the world. You won’t find the poised face of metro her but the people are realistic, trust worthy and kind, a real example of village beauty. Then I always say to my friends that my hometown is not a village coz by the word village, they imagine it as a vast land with one building inside a circumference of one kilometer. Kollemcode is very thickly populated with high percentage of literacy. It’s really difficult to find a person who is not at least a matriculate and I am sure that max of the youngsters are at least a degree, diploma or iti holder.

To know more you can refer the wikipedia link given in the paragraph heading.

Kollemcode Amma(Mother) and Kollemcode Temple:

Indians have very high religious values. They trust God and they believe that everything happening in their life is controlled by God. I am not talking about all the people but I believe that most of them think like this, so do I. I believe in God very much. I dedicate what ever I have achieved in my life though its very small compared to any others, to the Goddesses of Kollemcode.
I call them amma (Malayalam term for Mother). I always tell my friends that I have three moms; one is my mother, two Devi’s in Kollemcode temple and my Lord Shiva as my Godfather.
Origin, history and background of Kollemcode temple are described in http://www.kollemcodedevi.com/ and I am not an authorized person to explain about that :). But I will explain about Kollemcode Temple and Kollemcode Devi in short and to the depth of knowledge I have.

Kollemcode Temple has two idols of Devi’s (Goddess) and they are referred as Bhadra and Rudhra. Kollemcode Temple is called Mudipura. Term Mudipura is typical Kerala style Temple for Goddess and the idols are semi circular in shape called Mudis. There are two temples for Kollemcode Devi. One is old Mudipura and another is new. Both are at a distance of two kilometers. Devi stays in old Mudipura in much time of the year. At the time thookam both of them will shift to new Mudipura.

Thookam:

Thookam is held on Bharani Nakshatra (Nakshtra is Star – Bharani is Star Sign as we have Cancer as Sun Sign) of every Meenam( Meenam is a month in Malayalam calendar that comes at the time of March-April in Gregorian Calendar). Thookam is way of offering child to Goddess believing that they will save him from any kind of hazards that he/she may meet in life. More over it is believed that when a newly wed couple offers a thookam they will get child soon and birth of the child will also happen without any complexities. Thookam is not a festival of Kollemcode, People from Thirunelveli to Trivandrum offer thookam and while a few from Chennai and different parts of Kerala and Tamilnadu.

Pic: Temple long view

First Day of festival:

Festival begins 10 days prior to thookam day by taking both Devi’s to new temple. This is called Ezhunallathu (Royal Procession). Elephants, Panchvadyam( Musical Band with five different musical instruments), Chenta (Typical Kerala drum) vadyam, Muthukuda (Colorfull umbrella which normally take part in processions of Kerala), Venchamaram (Fan used by Kings) ,Thalapoli (Girls dressed in traditional carrying light) accompany them in royal procession. In the way, both Goddess bless the people who welcome her on the way. Once both of them reach the new temple the royal flag is hoisted by the priest declaring the festival is started followed by Vedikettu (Fireworks).

Festival continues:

Then another nine days with full of cultural events from traditional events like Kathakali(Refer Wiki), Ottanthullal, Chakyarkuthu to latest Ganamela (Musical Concerts), Nadakam (Dramas) and Musical Drama . This time various Troops across Kerala including Navya Nair (Cine Actress), Madhu (Cine Actor), Jyotsna (Malayalam Playback Singer), a lot many others performed various events.

Pic: Side view of Temple

Thookam registration:

On third day of Thookam, the registration starts for thookam while it will be completed by fourth day where time allotment of thookam is done. If a person wish to offer a thookam to his kid he should find a person called Thookakaran(Person who take the kid to the chariot). He should be physically fit and have to under go several physical tests. Once registration is done

rest six days he have to spend time on the temple premises with the food and clothing provided by the temple authorities. He has to follow the rules and regulations of the temple with pure vegetarian diet prescribed by the authorities of the temple. He has to perform Namaskaram in the evening to Goddess. Its really nice to see namaskaram as all 1200 people come around the temple premises and perform similar action to surya namskara( refer wiki).

Pic: Thookakar Performing Namaskaram

According to my knowledge Kollemcode Temple has highest number of thookam ever registered across Kerala and TN. This time 1206 thookam is registered among 1150 kid thookam and around 50 thookam as spare or kid less thookam.

Kavadi:

Kavadi is an offering to Lord Subramanian. My brother also took Kavadi this time. Kavadi is again semi circular structure decorated with flowers and taken as procession from Old temple to new temple. He got fainted in his way to the temple and later from that point thookkaran took him to the temple premises. This is on 7th day thookam festival.

Vava Preparing Kavadi:

Vantiyottam or (Test Drive of chariot):
As an inaugural event of thookam Test drive of Chariot is done where the Chariot is taken across the temple to check if it is working fine on that day. This is one the ninth day of thookam.

Final day or Thookam Day:

On the thookam day Devi is taken to PachaPanthal( Temporary place where both Devi’s stay for the day of thookam) while all thookkakars perform sea bath and dress them selves and move to Temple premises as procession. When their turn comes they will be tied to the chariot with the kid in their hands and chariot is pulled around the temple. On every thookam day, a Flight with garlands and flowers are flown above the temple and flowers are thrown on the temple. This is performed every year by an Army official as his offering. At the end of thookam, the total collection is counted and next day by evening they return back to old temple.

Pic: Thookam Closeup

As the festival comes to an end , each Kollemcodian will be on sweet memories of it and expecting the next years thookam to come soon.