The Kummatti at Kunisseri
Nestling between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea is
the rice bowl of Malabar, todays Palakkad. Its strategic location and rich agricultural
tradition was a cause for many a battle. Primary was its produce being important
for expanding populations and secondly because it was the entry point of the
Tamilakam trade route, i.e. the Palakkad gap. Carts and animals of trade
carried produce back and forth through a domestic highway of sorts. As time
went by and the kingdoms in North Malabar became more and more affluent and
populated, and as import of rice from the Konkan and Coromandel rice traders
came under threat, the southern rice producing areas became even more important.The
Palghat rajas, whom we talked about in the past, were not always the overlords
of the entire district as we know it today, since some parts of it were either
under the suzerainty of either the Zamorin or the Kochi raja.
At its southern extremity, and bordering the Nelliyampathy
jungles and the Tamil border were a bunch of small principalities of Chittur,
Kollengode, Pallasena, Pallavur, Nemmara, Kunissery, Trippalur and finally
Alathur. Today a bustling national highway connects Alathur to Palghat via
Koyalmannam, but in the past, the important road from Palghat passed through
Koduvayur and Kunissery to reach Alathur and through the Kuthiran hills to
Trichur and beyond. Cart traffic and an occasional bus passing through Pallavur
and coming from Pallasensa also touched Kunisseri, thus defining its importance
as a junction.
Before the advent of bus traffic, Kunissery was a sleepy
village, then became a little junction of importance till the NH47 came into
being, after which it went back to its previous lethargic being. As you stop on
the road and look, only paddy fields and palm trees dot the landscape, with the
skyline interrupted only by the dark rock hills of the Sahyadri. Sometimes
hidden behind trees you could see old stately Nair tharavads, with associated
ponds with coconut trees ringing them. People in these lands went about their
ways, mostly untouched by the outside world busy with change and destroying
itself.
As little children, we would cycle to Kunissery from
Pallavur either to buy something from the five or six duty shops or to pick up medicine
from a lone medical shop in the vicinity. The only movie theatre, Kunissery
Prabha was visited during vacations with large numbers of us stuffed into my
uncle’s Premier Padmini, bursting at its seams and trundling through the empty
road at a majestic 20-30 kmph! I still remember the first movie we saw there,
Nagarame Nandi way back in 1967, when it opened its doors to public.
On the Punartham star of Meena masam (roughly March-April),
the small village awakens itself and the Pookulangara Bhagawathy Temple gets
ready for its annual festival, the Kunissery Kummati, on the birthday of the
goddess. Elephants arrive, the temple is festooned with colors and glitter,
percussionists drum up the public’s enthusiasm and small traders arrive in
hordes to profit as the public made merry. The three tharas of Kunissery,
namely Kizhakkethara, Thekkethara and Vadakkethara unites to administer and
execute this festival which as you can imagine, has an interesting bit of
history behind it. The serene pond, the tired looking banyan tree and lush
paddy fields surrounding the temple get ready for the hordes trooping to the
locale. While the Kummati is annual, once every 12 years, the Valiya Aarattu is
grandly conducted when the Pookkulangara Bhagavathy sets out to bow to Trippallavur
Mahadevan from my own village, Pallavur, just a mile away. The Kummati is
intimately connected to the Zamorin of Calicut and the legend is an interesting
one. How and what on earth made the Zamorin come there is the story we will
retell.
We go back to the late 13th century, a turbulent
period in the history of Malabar. It is not clear if the Kunissery desam was
under the control of the Palghat Raja or the Perumbadappu swaroopam (Cochin had
not yet formed). Some years later we find it under the suzerainty of the
Perumbadappu chieftains, so gifted to them by the Palghat Tharoor swaroopam for
some reason, hitherto unknown. One legend states that the Tharoor swaroopam
were childless and so two young ladies were married off to the nephews of the
Perumbadappu chief at Trichur and Kunissery was gifted to the Perumbadappu as
some kind of a dowry,
Anyway during a series of military conquests the Zamorin of
Calicut intent on expanding his domain and power, as well as his Nair forces
surged through the region in 1363, first capturing the home base of the Perumbadappu
south of Valluvanad and conducting the Mamankam at Tirunavaya. That by itself
is a long story and we will get to it eventually, but suffice to say that the
victorious Zamorin then brought Trichur and the surrounding regions under his
reign. Vadakkanchery, and all the desams we talked about earlier in the
vicinity of Pallavur were quickly taken over by the Calicut raja. But one desam
resisted him (through the year of 1364), and his mighty forces, namely the Kunissery
desam.
Six months of fighting stalled into a stalemate and the
Zamorin and his commanders were perplexed as to why they could not defeat this
small principality (though supported by the Perumpadappu forces), only to conclude
that the goddess was perhaps the power behind the opposing forces. Appeasing
her was the only way out as the Zamorin had discovered during earlier battles
with the Valluvakonathiri (when he appeased the Valayanad goddess and defeated
the Velathiri) and the Zamorin set out doing just that. As the story goes, the
Zamorin succeded eventually and after defeating the opposing forces, he built a
Kovilakom there for himself, signifying the importance of the goddess and the
location itself, as a perch for future plans of empire building towards the
south and southwest. That these lands were in his name since then is clear from
ancient land records and legal battles between future tenants and the Zamorin
named as the landlord. Quite a bit of these lands were according to KV Krishna
Ayyar, donated by him to the temple at Guruvayur.
Yet another legend states that the Zamorins forces decimated
the Perumbadappu forces situated at neighboring Vadakkancheri and Kunissery.
All the men, numbering some 500 were killed and the women of Kunissery were
thus widowed. These helpless women sought the help of the goddess and she
commanded them to get ready for a battle with their Ulakka’s and Muram’s. The Zamorin’s
soldiers seeing this were amazed and seemingly saw the fierce countenance of
Goddess Durga on each face, and quickly withdrew. The court astrologer informed
the Zamorin of the wrath of the Pookulangara goddess and the Zamorin quickly prayed
to her for forgiveness. The Pukulangara Bhagavathy is supposedly connected to the
Kodungallur Bhagavathy and the famed Kanngi of the Shilappadikaram, so I guess
you can imagine how powerful she could be.
She commanded him to do proper reparations and thus the Zamorin
quickly brought in 500 Nairs from Calicut to partner the men-less village. It
is said that at this time, some 80 Nairs were resettled in Pallavur as well, by
the Zamorin. Life went on, but as you can see, this village was quite far from
Tirunavaya where all the Nairs of Malabar congregated for the mamankham
festival. They complained to the Zamorin that they could not attend the
mamankham and so, it was in compensation that a parallel mamankam was held in
Kunissery and called the annual Kummati festival. The original order by the Zamorin
to conduct a mamankam at Kunissery was conveyed through a panan (bard) but as
he arrived late after conveying the message, the Zamorin supposedly sent a Paraya
to ensure the message was conveyed. All these are commemorated in today’s Kummati
celebrations. During the celebrations, a formal question is also put to the 580
nair families of Pallavur and Kunissery if the celebrations could begin.
The responsibility to conduct the Kummati rested with the Vellattu
panikkar, the Kandeth panikkar and the Kannath families of Kunissery. The legal
title that the Zamorin had over the lands is indicated by for example by a well-documented
court case in 1903 when one Theyyan nair of Kunissery fought the Zamorin (Punthurakon)
for title over land leased to him. There are many related stories in the
history of the Zamorin’s hold over Palghat’s Naduvattom, and I will get into
those one by one.
The jottings by BS ward who passed by these regions during
his survey in 1820 is interesting
To the North and South East of Pullacherry are several
ridges of black rocks, the largest, and highest being Wanmulla, flat at the summit;
and to the North and East of Pullavoor are many running in ridges to Taloor, a
square high-peaked rock. Pullavoor, S. S. E. nine and three-quarter miles of
Paulghaut, consists of two gramums with a celebrated pagoda within a walled
enclosure, lies S, of the above and to the N. an extensive Nair population.
Gooduloor S. S. E. one and a half miles, Pullacherry E. three miles, and
Koonucherry N. W. one and a quarter miles from Pullavoor, are large straggling
villages, inhabited by Vellalers: at the two former are gramums, and a few
small pagodas.
6th November 1820—At 8
A.M. left Allatoor, and proceeded by a good road leading to the north and east;
crossed the Nemary river from whence the road towards Paulghaut goes off north;
from thence proceeded over extensive fields through Koonichairy, an extensive
and populous village in Malabar, then through fields again; passed the above
river, which here forms the boundary of Cochin and Malabar; then over a waving
country intersected by narrow vallies of wet cultivation to Nemary, a populous
village with a palace and pagoda and the capital of a sub-division insulated by
Malabar, only a few miles north of the great range of mountains; arrived at it
at 1 P.M.; weather close and sultry; morning fair.
19th January 1820. Left
Wembaloor; made a circuit of its cultivated lands, which are narrow and partly
in deep vallies occasioned by ridges of black rocks at intervals; then along
the limit to the river, which again divides Paulghaut from Nemary, to Kudaloor,
an extensive village; then proceeded north-west, making a circuit on extensive
lands of flat cultivation dependent on it, with some insulated houses amidst
it, to Pullavoor, the capital of a sub-division, an extensive village with a
large pagoda and an appropriate Bramin Agrarum, besides a large population of
Nayres and other casts, and a broad flat valley of cultivation to the north of
it; from thence proceeded to Kakoor and arrived at it at 7 P.M.; weather warm.
Why is this called a Kummatti? Kummatti is prevalent in parts
of Palakkad districts and is usually associated in propitiating a goddess. They are typically associated with Devi
temples where they are performed as part of rituals; and as mock preparations
for war following which the participants enact the war. The limericks and nonsensical
verses of Kummatti reflect the rustic sense of humor of village folk. Wearing
colorful masks representing the faces of mythological characters and covering
the entire body with Kummatti grass and leaves, the performers go around,
dancing and collect money. The name of the ritual is derived from the Kummatti
grass they wear and its long sticks they hold with them.
The events enacted during the Kummati are numerous, with Kanyar
kali holding center stage, followed by the Ponnani Kali and many other events. Ten
elephants lord over the festival, caparisoned and majestic while the villagers
make merry. Kanyar Kali as they say, is connected in this context to the
practicing martial arts, for the region, was under the constant threat of
attack from neighboring Kongu Nadu. At the high point of the celebration, the
villagers who have assembled near the temple are asked if they will defend the
village. Only upon getting a positive answer can the celebrations proceed.
The tourist brochure states- During the commencement of Kummatti mamamgam , villagers sing
“kummoo…Kumu kumukummooo…..” along the premises and harvested paddy fields to
inform everyone about the start of mamangam. The devotes from the take bath in
the temple pond reciting devotional hymns praising the goddess by using a large
bamboo poles which is brought from the sacred forest in Nelliampathy, which
marks to the start of the festival celebrations. They circumambulate around the
temple with these huge bamboo poles in hand. Theses bamboo poles are placed at
their respective positions in Vadakkethara, Thekkekara and Kizhakkethara. Another
attraction of Kummatti is a folk art called Ponnani Kali. Darikavadam
kalampaatu lasting for 18 days is a main event in the Kummati Mamagam. During
the festival, the villagers don the dress of such common folk as 'Panan' the
pot maker, 'Chakiliyan' the leather worker, 'Vannan' the washer man, 'Cheruman'
the farm-hand connecting up to the previously mentioned legend of the Zamorin’s
messengers from Calicut.
So many interesting aspects can be gleaned from the
aforesaid study, as to how an overlord moved his armies and people around to border
towns in order secure it over long periods of time, how important a titular
festival can be and the grip temples and goddesses had over the warring kings
of Malabar. Who said the history of Kerala is boring?
References
Mamankhavum Samoothiriyum – PCS Raja
Kerala Sthala Charithrangal – VVK Valath
Memoir of the Survey of Travancore and Cochin 1816-1820 – BS
Ward
Video - The
Kummatti at Kunissery
Images
Pookulangara temple and Kummati image courtesy Abhay
Santhosh
Kunissery paddy fields- @kv_wandererlife
21 comments:
Excellent One . More welcome . Love sreevalsan j menon ( Kallayil )
This is a lot of interesting information. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks Sreevalsan, Niranjan
Glad you enjoyed it
Good to read one unknown historical episode.
The palakad gap is the only natural gap, which enables ,man, material flow between tamil kingdom and chera kingdom. Rest other borders western ghats was continous and humanly impossile to attack chera kingdom through vast stretch of westernghats. so it is obvious, all attacks aimed to kerala through palakkad, so it no surprise that nairs of palakkad bore the brunt of many attacks. When the swaroopams came into existence after the fall of second chera dynastly, the prominent swaroopam ,samoothri and perupadappu were in the forefront to attain supremacy over palakkad,that also made them to fight and defend. Also important to note tarur swaooroopam ,local pricipality was behind inviting hyder ali to kerala to decimate samootrri. Later hyder and tippu decimated both.
Also the tamil bramins entry also contributred to palakad history,as they contributed their typical food and customs and of course their Wisdom and brain power
So palakkad was the theatre were all history of kerala well played.
Thanks for your article on kunissery and samootri connection.
The story, about Zamorin sending Nairs from Calicut to Kunissery for marrying the women who were left behind after the the disastrous war where the menfolk lost their life, is new to us. This perhaps explains why some Kunissery women who have been married in Calicut families would become restless during the Kummatti season, wanting to visit their native place and get the blessings of the Pookkulangara Devi.
Incidentally, Ward's narration refers to the Koodallur village which is perhaps the 'K' in K V Krishna Ayyar's name.
Very informative post. Thanks
Thanks Jayan..
glad you found it interesting...
Thanks CHF...
I had seen a mention of this somewhere, but it was only recently that I got into finding out the details. Yes, that is the Koodalur village near Pallavur..
We don't care for our history, true! But I may fall in love with History, if I keep reading your blog posts. OMG.. I have just started and I am loving the. and hope to keep reading your posts.
Thanks Quillish..
Between the two blogs Maddys Ramblings and Historic alleys where I post my studies, you will find so many articles to read and hopefully, enjoy! A small word of appreciation such as yours or even thoughtful criticism is what keeps me going...Thank you
As children we are told that it is a replay of the real mamankam. I have seen pudussery kummati where people wear masks and the stick,but in kunissery,from child hood iam not seeing the same.There is another kummatti at kallepully ,palakkadand I have not seen the same as it happens on the same day of pudussery vedi.so I cannot ascertain whether in kallepully they are wearing the mask and stick
It is exhilarating to read the memoirs of my native place though I am away from that tiny village for more than 50 years. Can you look into the historic significance of certain powerful families like madathil during the perumbadapu regime.
Excellent. Brought out the history well. Understand Manghat house origin is from Calicut Zamorin and s temple is dedicated at Calicut and Manghat house is mentioned there
Thanks guys..
I will be writing more about the Naduvattom wars, soon.
rgds
A great writeup...always proud of the culture and history my beautiful place holds...and i am sure i would share with my daughter. Appreciate your efforts in bringing this to us.
As a 80 year old Kunisseri origin nair, I was thrilled and very happy to read - no better word would be absorbe the well written history of my village! Kudos to you sir and hope you would continue to enlighten us. Namascaram
Thanks Hridaya Prasad & Ravi..
Many more articles will follow covering the history of our regions.. keep visiting the site
Valuable information about the culture of palakkad
Thanks for sharing this very interesting piece of information and history. Without individual efforts like these, rich local history such as these would struggle to be appreciated by general public.
Out of curiosity, I wonder if you could provide any further information about Kannath House that is mentioned in the article, as one of those families responsible for the Kummati. The reason I ask is I am on a similar journey to trace my roots. I belong to Kannath nair tharavadu that is currently based in and around Mannur, just north of Pathiripala. But I know this is not the original location of our Tharavadu. Infact our roots are somehow linked to Valluvandu, Zamorin and our family deity Thirumandamkunnu Devi at Angadipuram. I have been trying to locate other branches of Kannath family in an attempt to trace our origins but with little success.
Would therefore appreciate any information you may be willing to share.
Thanks. Arun Kannath.
Thanks for sharing this very interesting piece of information and history. Without individual efforts like these, rich local history such as these would struggle to be appreciated by general public.
Out of curiosity, I wonder if you could provide any further information about Kannath House that is mentioned in the article, as one of those families responsible for the Kummati. The reason I ask is I am on a similar journey to trace my roots. I belong to Kannath nair tharavadu that is currently based in and around Mannur, just north of Pathiripala. But I know this is not the original location of our Tharavadu. Infact our roots are somehow linked to Valluvandu, Zamorin and our family deity Thirumandamkunnu Devi at Angadipuram. I have been trying to locate other branches of Kannath family in an attempt to trace our origins but with little success.
Would therefore appreciate any information you may be willing to share.
Thanks. Arun Kannath.
Greetings, your enquiry re: Kannath Mannadiars
Kannath house, as informed, is near that small temple - of Kodangallur Bhagavathi, located on the main road enroute to the kolapadam junction. They are in the forefront during the Kummatti festival, & have the right to lead the dialogue with samudri’s representatives prior to the official start of the Utsav on Kanyar day. The house has since branched into several smaller units all in Kizhekkethara. The family is very active in all functions of the temple. Mr Arun Kannath cud make a visit to Kunisseri n meet up with quite a few seniors of the family to get details of his lineage.
He cud contact - Puliyakot Ramanunny, patron of Kizhekkethara/ Thekkedath Narayanan Kutty for introducing him. Kummatti committee has a Unnikrishnan Kannath as joint treasurer.
Puliyakot Unny’s house is on the Kaavprambe. Narayanan Kutty is just ahead of the Mannath.trust this info helps.
Radhe Krishna. Your blog has been extremely informative and I draw lots of help from it for my 100Agraharams of Palakkad project. My pranams to you for the depth of research you have done and the volume of reading material you have shared. Sriram(Hari)
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