Ancient Periya Eri
It is the starting of winter and
the ground is wet and a mild cyclone is expected to hit the village. The grass
are grey and ready to be taken by the local formers to use as hay to feed their
cattle, before rain starts. Water scarcity problem in summer time and this year
it got extended till winter and the villagers depends on the nearby pond called
Periya Eri which has good water table and helps people for 365 days throughout
the year. Periya Eri a sprawling water body covering about 189 acres of land. People
do fishing and there are multiple tents around the pond. Local people treat
this water source as a form of God and they worship the pond during the Aadi
and Chithirai month festivals. The village has a mix of Kshatriyas and Sudras
people and all share this place in a brotherly hood manner. Here people never
ask for help because they will get it from their neighbors even before
requesting. Please are clean from inside out and the village always looks calm
and pleasant.
Pallavapuram Hill
723 AD, Pallavapuram a beautiful
village earlier ruled by Mahendravarma I and now under the hands of local
village Panchayat. People were innocent and they rely on farming for their day
to day needs. The inhabitants of this village are cherished with good Tamil
culture and most of them are self-employed. Cattles and trees made the village
even more beautiful and the mountains around this village are the natural
barricades from outside world. The village Panchayat leaders are five in number
and they take almost all decision of the village. Chinnaiya Devar, Periya
karupu, Veera Muni, Malai Kondan and Sokkanathan are the well known people in
the village and they are the self claimed guardians of the village. Except
Sokkanathan, they are very conventional and against any new culture or people getting
into their community.
Mahendravarma I
( This story is about a true love
that is going to root out in this village in few years and going to set a bench
mark for the whole world. A love with passion, a love with patience, a total
unconditional love and a love that never last. Some people call this as a Godly
love (Deivega Kadhal) and some call it as a mad love filled with 99% lust and
1%love. I leave it to the audience to decide and will be nothing wrong to read
a novel with 99% lust even in a worst case J
About the author: Kannan
Janardhana Babu, 2015 AD lived in this place for more than 25 years after India
independence and this story is a truly up to Kannan’s imagination. This story
is not made to harm anyone or any community of people. Try to feel the love and
move on. Will be happy if it creates a good impact in your heart and nothing
else is expected . My hero name is Maruthu and his soul mate name is Ponni,
Don’t think that I am sharing everything as you have big surprises yet to
come)
There is no vagabond or beggars
in this village as the Panchayat will collect tax from village and will take
care of them. People are provided with work and training on how to survive. All
orphan kids are adapted by families who have no kids and there are huge number
of people they still want to adapt kids even though they have their own kids.
The Panchayat actually plays a role of social security process which is now a
day’s very familiar in western countries. Tamil people are much advanced and
they are the one who first started practicing the best practice across the
world.
Panchayat build school (palli),
hospitals (Marunthagam), road and temple in the village and especially
maintains a group of youths called as Kalvalkara padai (guardians of the
village) who do patrol the village, day and night and safe guard the village
from wild animals and thief. This made the village to respect the Panchayat
team as they maintains peace in the village. Men wear simple dhoti and
angavastra, women were cotton saree without blouse. People gets married in the
age of 7 to 10 years and they have an habit to respect all women other than
wife as mother.
Kalianna a senior citizen of the
village was called to come to Panchayat ( place of judgment) to take a critical
decision. It was a mid noon time and the drizzles starts and there are chances
of a thunder storm anytime on that day. The common announcement was given to
all on a day before to attend the Panchayat session. It is a centre of the
village next to Periya Eri and a small Karupannan temple where this Panchayat
is always conducted. Karupannan is the village God and most of them are scared
on doing any evil things as Karupannan will punish them by any means. This made
the good bad balance in the village. Karupannan temple looks simple, but it has
more than 100 bells hanging around the temple. Two big pained sand horse was
kept in front of the temple to notify that Karupannan will ride in and give
punishment as soon as possible. High speed wind in the Panchayat place make the
temple bells to ring louder and frequently than ever before. It pull out the
dust next to the open ground and the whole place is overwhelmed by dust. The
village are strictly controlled by the Panchayat leaders and they are eagerly
waiting for Kalianna to come and help to make a judgment. Few people worship
Bramha on the hill top temple build by Mahendravarma I in early 7th century.
The Panchapandava Cave Temple was
built on the southern slope of a hill, situated amongst the excavation hills
(quarry areas) east of the present day settlement at Pallavaram. The site is
one of a series of amazing rock-cut temples constructed by King Mahendravarman
throughout his kingdom, others of which are found at Dalavanur, Tiruchirapalli,
Mandagapattu, Kilmavilangai, Mamandur and Tiru-kazhukunram.
Brahma temple
The Panchapandava Temple was
constructed in typical Pallava style, with six huge pillars in front. Cut into
the mother rock was a sanctum sanctorum featuring five cells, one for each
member of the Trimurti, the presiding deities. The two cells on the outer sides
were for subsidiary deities, whose identity is unknown. All five shrines face
south. The sanctum as a whole projects outward, carved from a protruding
section of the main rock. In the picture below, we see that at one point, a
roof covered the sanctum and a narrow porch area. As was typically the case
with Mahendra rock-cut temples, the number of shrines correspond to the number
of pillars, so that each niche would be approached by stepping between a pair
of pillars.
A voice of an old man in the
crowd says “please untie me and I am innocent, I don’t know anything other than
Lord Vishnu”. He is in a saffron dhothi and he politely says that “I never
entered your village in an intention to convert any caste, I came here to find
a livelihood as this place is flourished with nature’s gift. I am a Sadhu and I
will not harm anyone or do any wrong thing to this village”. But the villagers
are not listening to it, because they have no rights to talk or decide until
the Panchayat leaders and Kalianna reach the place.
To be continued....
