Translation from Malayalam of the
article in India Today, Kerala Edition 7th April 2004
Along
with an Interview with Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Faith Criticised
By S. Sunder Das, Elavoor
The Thookkam
offering of Elavoor Putthankavu Bhagavati Temple is
again turning out to be controversial. The very last such
offering made there was in 1987. It was only when Swami
Bhoomananda Tirtha and others intervened with strong
protests against this relic of a barbarous malpractice, that
the Elavoor Thookkam was discontinued. Now, protests have
again strongly surfaced against the endeavour of some local
temple officials to revive the custom.
The
reason advanced by the temple officials for the
re-introduction of thookkam (hanging)
is the verdict from ashtamangalya
prashnam (the special
astrological session).
“The revival of thookkam
was found necessary in the Ashtamangalya
Prasnam held on 30th April 2001, the re-introduction of
which was agreed to by the temple Tantri.
On 3rd March 2004, under the leadership of Haridas
Namboodiri, another deva prasnam was conducted, which also revealed the necessity for
re-introduction of the thookkam.
It is the firm decision of the temple committee to restart
the thookkam now”
says the temple committee president V G Janardhanan Nair.
Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha and other
concerned parties opposed the thookkam in the eighties as a
malpractice reminiscent
of human sacrifice. Elavoor area was under the rule of Paravoor
Thampuran (king). When the area came under the grip of
mass murders, incurable diseases, breakdown of law and
order, etc., the Thampuran consulted astrologers who
ascribed the situation to the wrath of Kodungalloor
Bhagavati (devi). The Thampuran spent
considerable time out in Kodungalloor Temple. On his way
home, when he reached the present spot of the Elavoor
temple, Kodungalloor Bhagavati appeared before him and
commanded him to construct a temple for Her at that spot and
propitiate her with human sacrifice annually.
Accordingly the Thampuran arranged with the
Nair Tharavads (families) of the area to select the
subject for the human sacrifice by drawing lots. Such a
selected person will be hung from a scaffold 30 ft. high, on
a platform (thookkam)
and left to die. The belief was that the Bhagavati’s
ghouls would devour the flesh of that victim and when the
temple gates reopened after 7 days, only the skeletal
remains of his body would be found suspended from the scaffold.
One year the lot fell on the only son
of a lady. She went to the Elavoor Devi and ardently prayed
to spare her only son. The
Bhagavti granted her plea through the Velichhapaad
(Temple Oracle), adding that no more human sacrifice
need be conducted in the temple and that in lieu of the
sacrifice, a thookkam, with a human being hung by the skin of his back and taken
around the temple thrice, be conducted annually.
As opposed to the above story by the
temple officials, the Paura(Citizen)
Dharma Samiti, a Dharma protection group of the temple
provides another explanation. During the rule of the Thampuran,
people so hung for thookkam
were all convicts condemned to death. The Paura Dharma
Samithi president, P S Unnikrishnan cleared their point of
view thus: “There is no logic now to such a barbaric
practice. The so-called Ashtamangalya
Prasnam supposed to have been carried out by the temple
officials were secretive and only a few of their lot
participated. The open public ashtamangalya
prasnam (specially convened astrological session)
conducted in 1987, soon after the thookkam
was terminated, clearly indicated that the Devi was
pleased with ‘floral
covering of the Deity’ (called Poomootal locally)
and not human
blood. It is a mystery as to why a few temple officials are
bent upon re-introduction of this once abandoned thookkam.”
When contacted, the temple tantri Sri MM Narayanan Nambootirippad said that thookkam
could only be a traditional custom or offering by a devotee;
it has nothing to do with tantric rites of the temple. I have no objection to thookkam
as an offering to the Devi by any devotee. If an
accident happens during the thookkam or if there are no volunteers to undertake the ritual, the thookkam
could be ended. That it was declared to be necessary in
the deva prasnam cannot
be ignored. The only treatment required to heal the thookkam
wounds is the application of the temple prasaada
on it and healing takes place within seven days’ he
added.
Paura Dharma Samiti contradicts the
claim of absence of accidents so far mentioned by the temple
tantri. Samiti president Unnikrishnan commented: ‘Once, a
hung person fell off the hooks and though he escaped with
injuries, the one on whom he fell succumbed. The blood
patches on the ground are a gruesome sight, revolting and
nauseating. The temple officials are taking this horrible
short-cut to attract tourists and thus enhance the income of
the temple’, he added.
Even amongst all these controversies
the person selected for the thookkam, V P Ramakrishnan Nair,
has already begun his 41-day penance and temple rites as a
forerunner to it. During this period he will carry a sword
blessed by the temple and will apply a special oil on his
body for the last 12 days of the fast. This is said to make
his skin supple and help in detaching
it from the flesh below, so that the hooks can be
easily thrust
or pierced. The hooks
are made from an alloy of five metals (Pancha-loha).
Two hooks are pierced
to the back of the person. A platform (called chaad)
made of teak wood is used. The last one used in 1987 is
still in the temple. It will be assembled only on the day of
the thookkam. After hooking the person, the hoist is raised
to a height of thirty feet. This is taken around the temple
compound thrice and the person is set free. Ramakrishnan
Nair has done this in 1986 and he claims that the wound got
healed in seven days’ time without any problems. He is
sixty years old and a daily wager. He has two children. He
says, ‘this is an offering to Devi and a devotional
custom. Nothing will happen to the person doing thookkam.’
There are varieties of thookkams:
darika thookkam,
Garuda thookkam, pilla thookkam (the person hung should
carry a child with him),
Otta thookkam (without any special costume etc.
Couples who are blessed with a child after long prayers
arrange for pilla thookkam. They hire someone to do the thookkam for them. This time Ramakrishnan Nair is offering
himself to be hung on behalf of
one A V Madhavan for a fee.
On many occasions more than one
person conduct thookkam.
In 1987, the previous occasion, seven persons did the thookkam.
‘This time also there were more offers but the temple
committee decided to have only one person as the custom was
being revived after an interval of sixteen years’ said the
President.
This time also Swami Bhoomananda
Tirtha, All India President of Hind Navotthan Pratishhan has
entered the scene vehemently opposing the thookkam. It was the strong intervention by him and like-minded
reformers in 1987 that stopped the thookkam
with effect from that year. ‘The district authorities
were involved in stopping it in 1987. A committee of 1001
persons was constituted then and it was decided to
substitute thookkam with
the floral covering of the deity.
"There must be some secret
agenda for the temple officials in this re-introduction of
the thookkam." says Swamiji.
If the temple committee proceeds with
the re-introduction, Swamiji says that it will be opposed
vehemently. ‘It was during the reign of Kings that such
practices and offerings to Devi were in vogue. It is not
possible or desirable to follow them now as the temple
atmosphere has altered for the better. The King never let
anybody die on
hooks who was not a criminal or who did not deserve such a
treatment. The logic must have been that the life
should depart in a more conducive atmosphere of the temple
if it suited the dying person. It was more for solace to the
condemned person and not for shedding one’s blood for
propitiating the deity’, explained Swamiji.
Poor people are offered money and
persuaded to be hung on behalf of others, is the view of the
Paura Dharma Samiti. The devotee is not the one who hangs
there on the platform. He hires a body. The expenses for the
forty-one days’ preparation and a fee of Rs. 10000 are
paid to him. The opponents of thookkam
point out that piercing one’s skin and flesh with
metal hooks must be a criminal offence. If it is a remnant
of the ancient human sacrifice, it is detestable and not
acceptable to modern society. Anyway, Elavoor temple is
becoming the site of a clash between traditional mis-belief
and the fair-play mentality of the new world.
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Interview
with Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha:
S Sunder Das, the correspondent
talked with Swamiji;
Question: How do you
view the re-introduction of thookkam?
Answer: It was after
very strong opposition in 1987 that the Government and
District Authorities intervened and stopped the thookkam.
The move to re introduce it must be with hidden
agendas.
Q: Why are you opposing
the thookkam?
A: Thookkam
is a barbarous and inhuman practice. To pierce a
human body and shed blood is a criminal offence.
Q: Do you think that the
authorities will stop this?
A: The authorities have
a moral and legal responsibility to stop it. It was a
1001 member committee that decided in 1987 to
substitute thookkam
with a permanent arrangement of floral covering (poomootal).
Q: Temple authorities
say that they are following the dictates of the recent
Ashtamangalya
prasnam?
A: In the prasnam
done previously, it was clearly seen that poomootal
is enough. The present temple committee’s term ended
two years ago. The Ashtamangalya
Prasnam arranged by them is suspect to the public.
Not only that, the procedure is not as per laws of the
Ooranma Devasom (under which the Temple exists).
Q: The temple
authorities insist that they will carry out the thookkam
even if opposed?
A: This is a move to commercialize
temple activities for the personal benefits of a
few.
Q: If the thookkam
is not stopped?
A: If it is to be, the thookkam scaffold (chadu) will
have to move forward over our prostrated bodies in
front the Deity. We cannot allow such a cruel and
barbaric practice to continue.
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