Press Coverage

 

 

Translation of the article on Revival of Elavoor Thookkam published in Malayalam Weekly, Kala Kaumudi dated 28 March 2004 (Pages 44 thru 46)

That Thookkam appears again

This unholy practice, considered equivalent to Human Sacrifice, was ended a decade back. However this year it has raised its head again foreboding a return.

By Varghese Angamali

The practice of the cruel religious sacrifice, Thookka Bali, (sacrifice in the nature of hanging) which was given up for ever, sixteen years ago being revived now, has provoked strong protests.

The Thookka bali (hanging sacrifice) which was a disgrace to the Culture of Bharat was, in April 1987, given up for ever through a joint decision of the Temple Management, the Hindu religious Hind Navotthan Pratishthan groups and the RDO, the District Authority. The driving force behind this is the revered Sannyasin Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha of Narayanashrama Tapovanam in Thrissur, who travels in the country and abroad disseminating the essentials of Bhagavadgeeta.

The historic movement against the Thookkam, sixteen years ago, had virtually created a storm in Kerala.

The Temple Committee is trying to revive the thookkam at the behest of a deva prassnam, says the Paura(Citizen) Dharma Samiti Secretary K K Prabhakaran and V K Kumaran. The Elavoor Paura Dharma Samiti has declared that the Thookkam will be prevented at any cost. A large number of members of the present Temple committee is against the revival of  Thookkam.

When he visited the Putthan Kavu Bhagvathi temple this writer saw carpenters busy structuring the scaffold for the thookkam. Sixty year old Varapuzha Ramakrishnan Nair, the (hired) Thookam labourer, has commenced observation of 41 day long vrata (penance) for undergoing thookkam on 23rd of April forthcoming, which is the tenth day after Vishu (annual rising of the sun in Aries – marking the commencement of Agricultural Year).

He will be getting a sum of Rupees Ten thousand as remuneration. Ramakrishnan Nair had hung from the thookkam scaffold in 1986.

The thookkam as an offering (Vazhipaadu) was in vogue for centuries in the Elavoor Puthankavu Bhagavati temple, near Angamali. The person, who volunteers to undergo the thookkam and wriggles in pain in the name of this devotional death-dance to please the Bhagavati (Goddess), has to be satisfied with the monetary benefits it bestows on him.

Hired Thookka m

People conduct the thookkam attracted by the promise of material gains and fruition of cherished dreams. The offerer of the thookkam hunts for a volunteer who will lend himself to be hung for a price and thus hopes to get the Devi’s blessings through the hired performer. The devi is expected to shower Her blessings on the hirer of the thookkam rather than on the hired performer, whose ordeal it is to go round the temple, hung from the scaffold. There are a number of former hired performers, with deep scars of  Thookkam, in Muzhikulam area, who are now living a desolate life in poor health.

The observation of Thookkam ritual

The Tookkam offering in the temple is centuries old. Only in Elavoor, Kerala, was the practice of conducting thookkam with a human body in vogue. In the thookkam ritual, a person is hung from a thirty-feet high scaffold after inserting metal hooks into the raw flesh at his back and is carried around the temple in stunning frenzy (by a crowd, wailing and crowing).

The person to be hung has to observe a vrata (austere discipline) for 41 days. From the first of the Malayalam month meenam (around fifteenth of March) to the tenth of medam (around April 23rd), the thookku victim (the one to be ceremonially hung) must worship at the temple twice everyday after bathing each time. He should observe purity of body and mind and partake of vegetarian diet only. He should not use any kind of intoxicants. He should not travel by vehicles or go across a river. For 21 days a mixture of three (herbal) oils should be applied on his back and rubbed vigorously to condition his skin. The formal commencement of the vratam is reckoned from the first day of Meenam (14th March this year) when  the one to be hung accepts the traditional ‘katuthala’ (sword ) from the temple priest.

After anointing himself with herbal oils and wrapping a red loin cloth over a decoratively worn dhoti,  the person to be hanged (thookku victim)  goes around the Putthankavu Devi temple and stands before the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum. The temple Oracle then appears there in a trance and  leads him inside to stand before the deity. With this ceremony the hanging (thookkam) proceedings begin.

The thookkam victim pays homage to the King by gifting the King’s representative an amount of money and seeks permission to perform the thookkam. Next he makes an offering of cash to the temple priest by way of homage.

The scaffold consisting of two wooden piers on cart wheels with a central stake is readied. The hooks for piercing, thrusting, on to the thookkam victim are of hard iron and each weighs 700gms. Persons hailing from the Kottakkal family alone have the rights for piercing the back of the thookkam victim to fix the hooks. The thookkam victim is made to stuff his mouth with betel leaves and a mixture of hard arecanut pieces, slaked lime, etc. that he may chew during his ordeal in the air. To make it a little comfortable for the thookkam victim, a set of bystanders blow hard into his ears to painfully deafen and benumb his head. After lifting him off the ground he is pulled to a height of thirty feet and made to dangle in the air batting his arms and legs like a fluttering Kite. The crowd then pulls the scaffold on wheels going round the temple thrice in utter frenzy. At last the thookkam victim is brought down and the hooks  pulled off. Soon he is chased and made to run around the temple. As he totters and falls those around rush to apply a paste of turmeric and betel leaves received as prasaada  from the temple. The process of hanging (thookkam) ends with this act and the thookkam victim is left to nurse his wounds.

The temple doors are shut for seven days and the temple routines are re-started after purificatory rites.  It is clear from these that the Elavoor thookkam has semblance to human sacrificial rites.

Even after he returns home, the thookkam victim continues to be dazed as the thick blood clots are squeezed out of his wounds. The traditional dressing of the wounds is done with the prasaada of turmeric-betel leaf paste.

The history of thookkam

Putthankavu is said to have been a Jain temple. Kavu  is a symbol of Jainism. In the early days of Shaiva-Vaishnava sects, there were numerous places which were influenced by Jainism.

The Jains were persecuted in many parts of India and the demoniacal, beastly manner of hanging them in temples was one of the ways adopted. Perhaps the thookkam offering was adopted in Kerala temples as a sequel to this. The name thookkam commemorates the process of this hanging.

The Legend behind Thookkam

Records show that the Elavoor thookkam has a history of at least four centuries as seen in the documents with the temple Trustees, the Kumbalangad Avanapparmbu Mana of  Wadakkancheri, Thrissur.

This temple was an outcome  of a local uprising and commotion and came into the hands of the said mana about 400 years ago, it is said. The mana family handed over the temple to the Uraanma Devasvam Board in Cochin.

There is a legend associated with thookkam. The Elavoor area was under the Paravoor tampuraan (feudal lord). Finding the crimes of murder and robbery mounting in his province, the King arranged for an astrological session in Paazhoor Padippurayil to unravel the reason for the plight. The astrological session  revealed that it was due to the wrath of the Goddess of Kodungalloor. The solution suggested by the astrologers was to sit in bhajan in Kodungalloor temple. The King did as he was bid. And when he was returning home from the Kodungalloor temple, he had a vision of Kodungalloor Bhagavati at Putthankavu on the banks of the Chalakkudi river. He was directed to build a temple at that place and conduct a human sacrifice once a year for the prosperity of the land and people. The King, therefore, decreed that one member from each Nair family should be offered for the sacrifice every year, the selection to be by lots.

The chosen person would remain hanging from the thookkam scaffold after the ritual and be left to die a painful death. It was believed that the Devi’s ghouls would devour the sacrificial person. When the temple would be opened after a week, only the skeletal remains of the victim would be found suspended from the scaffold. Once it was the turn of a mother’s only son.  The mother ardently prayed to the Goddess to spare her only child. The Devi granted her prayer and decreed through Her Oracle that from then onwards human sacrifice should be stopped and be replaced with human thookkam. Thus the present thookkam came into being. Even now permission from a representative of the Paravoor Royal family has to be sought before undertaking the thookkam, lending credence to the legend.

The thookkam ceremony was last conducted in April 1987. On that occasion there were four paid thookkam workers for undertaking the thookkam on others’ behalf.

There was an instance in 1978, of the thookkam victim falling from the scaffold when the hook tore out the skin of the back while hanging from the scaffold.  The person was Mangadan Kuttappan Nair and after the event the other hangers withdrew from the venture. On another occasion the person who was piercing the hooks on to the thookkam victim was himself hooked accidentally and hoisted. He had to be rescued from the scaffold.

The Victory of Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

The movement against the thookkam was first brought into the forefront by a group of acharyas and members of the Hind Navotthana Pratishthan under the leadership of Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha. To dissuade the people from participating in the cruel and demoniacal ritual, the Swamiji undertook a 21 day pilgrimage. The thookkam was ended for ever. However Swami Bhoomananda had to face many difficulties in the process.

This writer spoke to Swamiji just before he was about to leave for Delhi this year.

Speaking against the  efforts for revival of the thookkam the Swamiji said:

"The cruel and heinous ritual of thookkam vazhipaadu, can never be accepted by the educated and modern people”.

Continuing with an angry voice the Swamiji said: “Devotion is a natural trait of the human mind. Unnatural and cruel practices in the name of religion (and devotion) must be stopped for ever. Whatever practices have decayed (outlived their purpose) must be changed according to the needs of the times. That is how Hindu Dharma is relevant even today. The method by which an offering devotee hires someone to undergo the painful thookkam ritual,  keeping the offerer himself safely away from the ordeal, is cruelty personified. There were a number of such decadent and outdated practices in Hindu religion. Even sacrifice of human beings was in vogue in some places. Any ritual that reminds one of the human sacrifice, as the thookkam is, is a criminal offence. A criminal act that is disallowed elsewhere in society, certainly cannot be allowed in the holy precincts of a temple. Remember that sati was once a considered and accepted (religious) ritual in this land”.

Question: It has been revealed in the Deva Prasnnam that thookkam can be revived, what do you say on this?

Swamiji answered laughingly: “Deva Prasnnam itself  (in this case) was a wrong procedure.  Then (in 1987) it was poomootal (floral covering of the Idol)  that was dear to the Devi. Now to say that the Prasnam reveals otherwise is self-defeating. The deva prasnnam was conducted without the knowledge of the  Uranma Devaswvam Board. The term of office of the present governing body had expired in 2003 December. As such they do not have any authority to conduct deva prasnnam or ashtamangalya prasnnam’.

Question: The new scaffold is being readied and the thookkam victim has already begun his vrata (austere discipline). Isn’t it better that steps to prevent the thookkam be taken immediately?

“If the thookkam on 24th April were to take place, it would be over my dead body. I have begun the holy vrata for kshetra pavitrataa sayanam (Doing shayana for Temple Purificatory Shayana (lying)”  said Swamiji decisively and emphatically.

Swamiji has still got the same confidence and will that he displayed 16 years ago when he undertook the task of uprooting the evil of unholy temple practices.