Skip to main content

Up and Close with Sudalai Madan: The Encounter

Night of 13th April all the preparations for the rituals were done in the temple, Sudalaimadan swamy was decorated with flowers, fruits and coconuts; the dedications reached above his chest. My cousin Sudalai Muthu, senior priest of the shrine reached home by late-night got blessings of his father Late Shanmugam Sundaram also previous head priest and blessed the family members in room dedicated for God, then started towards the temple. People have already gathered in huge numbers and were waiting for the Sudalaimada Swamy's arrival at Temple. Different rituals were offered by people to the Lord in order to get the blessings. As it is believed Sudaimada Swamy, the son of Lord Siva used to consume meat in Kailash for this reason he is sent to earth, where he can satisfy his earthy hunger thereby not polluting Kailash.

Sree Aaladi Padmanabha Sudalaimada Swamy Temple, Kumarapuram

Offering meat to Sudalaimadan is the most important and watchful event of the festival. Many devotees offer their goat & pig so as to please the lord and get his blessings. That midnight Sudalaimada Swamy was ready to accept the offerings as the signals were passed to the person responsible for cutting the flesh out, blood started to flow all around. <Spoiler alert: Don't read any further if you are an animal activist or light-hearted, roll to the last paragraph 👻>. The First goat to be butchered was from the same village where Sudalaimadan himself resides, Kumarapuram. In one smooth motion the goat must be beheaded, it is considered ill omen if not done so, also it is believed the person swinging the sickle will not be alive till next Kodai. Sharp sickle passed through the skin cutting out the heart of the calf sized goat. That sacred heart of the first goat was placed carefully in the first step of the temple.

I was shocked to see as many were pleased to see this, some even had enough will to stand there till the 120th goat was butchered. I don't consider myself weak-hearted still I was not ready to see them die. One goat after another, no goat was taken away sickle passes through it dies and it will be placed next to the previously killed one. I can't find a perfect word to describe calf-sized goat, in Tamil we call it 'Kada' whereas small ones are called 'Aadu'. Soon the rituals of killing goats were over. Our family always had the privilege in the temple I enter the temple via side entrance because if you are going to go in by the main entrance then we have to step over a pile of 120 goats.

Settled inside I looked at Sudalaimadan to see if he is pleased with offerings can't get any clue. I don't want to get killed asking stupid questions to any serious devotee 😳 Then a long squeal in a low pitch shaking the floor, it was a pig, or is it a warthog, never have I ever seen a pig of this size in my life. Roughly after 15 such squeals, the meat offerings came to an end. My cousin currently in Sudalaimadan mode danced around for a minute climbed over the 2ft pile of flesh then rushed to burial ground 15 feet away.

And it is time for Mayana kollai : The God of cemetery enters the cemetery to quench is earthly thirst. OMG!!! I was shit scared to see because many people warned me about the intensity. I saw my cousin Mr. Sudalai as THE Sudalai returning from the cemetery with bones and sat in front of Veera Sangali Madan shrine calmed down then distributed prasad to devotees. Now the Sun has come up and has lit the temple with his rays, Chitapa and I returned to home rested there for some time started back to Chennai. On the way back we again visited temple only to see dark bloodstains all over the temple, meat was auctioned off.

Sudalai madan
Sudalaimadan
We came back so that we can worship lord when there are not many people around. Padmanabha Sudalaimada Swamy is the main God of temple other gods were Veera Sangalimadan, Kattai erum perumal, Sappani madan, Karupaswamy, Mundan, Sangali Poothaththaan. I didn't spot any goddess I could have missed but as per lore Sudalaimada companion is Madathy amman and there is also another woman in Sudalaimadans life, Maavushakty, daughter of a wicked sorcerer; and I saw them both as Sothai bomai (representational figurine) atop temple entrance.

Updated all photos and references to specifically highlight my experience in my ancestral village at the temple close to my family.
Labels:
Location: Kumarapuram, Tamil Nadu 627657, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular this month

Puththu kovilum Putho tilesum, as they are built

Its the grand Aadi season here in Tamil Nadu wherever you go you'd be followed by awful noise from no mercy speakers masqueraded as a devotional song. Yes, this is the first post dedicated to it. Hindu is not a religion but it's idealism, a way to unite people, that's perfectly constructed by assuming separate task to every God, no single God worship. Hindus moved from nature worship to idol worship, but that doesn't mean that we don't have nature worship we have created an idol for them and continued to worship them in a different form. Snake is a beautiful reptile, I have made friend with few too... Our ancestor found the natural law, 'every living creature on earth is important for the ecosystem to be balanced'. Maybe to make sure snakes are not killed fearing their venom they made them as God too! Not just idol snakes, they are worshipped as they are at their  conquered (from rats and termite)   nest or  puthu . Puthu...
Post a Comment
Expand post »

Three language educational policy will only benefit Hindi

The three language education policy even if not enforcing Hindi, will end up enabling and propagating only Hindi! Since I'm from Tamilnadu, I'll restrict my views to it; but you can pick this template and apply to any state/UT of India. Students cannot learn on their own, this would mean hiring new teachers. But Schools cannot afford to hire many teachers due to budget, that cascades to lean number of choices available for student. German/French/Japan or any such international language teachers will be highly sought after by lavish private schools which translates to high salary for them, naturally schools catering to middle class will not be able to afford them. Thus school administration will end up hiring Hindi teachers readily available from Dhakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha. Maybe some schools present in borders towns like Vellor, Hosur, Nagapattinam will choose Telugu, Kannadam, Malayalam and so on. Baring them I can only see Hindi flourishing in future. I...
1 comment
Expand post »

Unmaking of tortilla with corn flour

I'm on my cooking spree, it has been bread & jam or noodles for too long. Now that I have grown a taste for cheese I bought a lot of cheese and started googling recipes that includes cheese. I started out with cheese sauce for nachos, I liked nachos more than sauce cause I didn't get it right the first time. In nachos I found a good evening snack, so moved into salsa or mayo or even thick salad dressing as I found it easier to arrange than cook. Inevitably I came back to stove when I wanted to eat pasta after having mouth watering conversations with Dewang . I wanted to make pasta with sauce or cheese of my choice also privilege of eating pasta in India is mostly reserved for those people who works in corporate and goes out for casual dinner and lunch were they don't need to pay bill. Cooking at home gives me the opportunity to introduce such cuisine to my parents. I started cooking pasta and sauce, once I made the cheese sauce curdy and the other day I forgot to...
Post a Comment
Expand post »

Shame of Sabarimala : Annadhanam under TDB

Annadhana Prabhuve, Saranam Ayyappa It means "The noble who donates food, Ayyappa save us". The legend is not clear about how or why Lord Ayyappa is called so, coincidentally the third step of the Pathinetu padi stands for Annapoorna (the God of food) by crossing this step Ayyappamar assure that they have followed Ayyappa by donating food to peers and made sure any Ayyappamar coming to Sabarimala for Punya Dharishanam is not hungry. I'm sure this year many Ayyappamar did not fullfil this deed to proudly step on it, they neither received nor gave; they were curbed. Though it was ABASS*   who started it all many sangam took up the responsibility to feed the hungry Ayyappamar, people have crossed the toughest times by taking supplies to impossible mountain peak like Karimala, Azhutha; now with roads easing pain kerela government and travancore devaswom board(tdb) is pulling the rug on Seva Sangams. Image edited from The Hindu Double standard of kl govt and tbd ...
Post a Comment
Expand post »