Lord Siva and his Silbandhi teams

It all began with sj wondering which his family temple was, and then coming up with the strange name of Maadan Kaave, and then of course struggling to describe what a Maadan was. "From the classification of various types of Indian (or is it malayali?) ghosts", he began," I remember two, Maadan and Marudha, both of which are basically male and female forms of good ghosts respectively". The concept of a good ghost was quite alien to my mind, which was developed in a conventional Islamic NRI background, and the only supernatural religious beings exposed to it were God, the Angels and Satan. "I would say that the good ghost was developed primarily for the lower castes", he continued. "They were restricted from praying to the upper class gods in the upper class temples, and thus the good ghost had to be developed. They were more like the silbandhi teams that hang out with Siva (the God), you know, the ones that probably buy him soda to mix with his drinks". At which point of course I had to enquire if Siva was a drinker in his opinion, to which he exclaimed, "Of course! How else do you explain the occasional outbursts of singing and dancing between prolonged periods of silent meditation? And while all other gods dress up in gold and silk brocades and congress with the good angels, Lord Siva and his collection of ghosts and other creatures are seen lounging around with animal skins and matching horns. The symbolic snake around his neck (Pambe) was definitely gifted to him by a Mallu Maadan, no doubt. And do you really think that it is a coincidence that he is the Lord of destruction." Anyway, this Maadan's following was not restricted to the lower caste and had all kinds of patrons, including Muslims! The reason was the Maadan's speciality, which was the lost and found department. So if anyone lost their keys or any other valuables, they headed out to the Maadan Kaave, broke a coconut, lit a deepam or did a ground roll and then rested assured that their keys were safely on their way to them. Of course, if you did find the keys after that it is obvious that the Maadan appoopan had a hand in the matter and you offered him your thanks in money or kind, but if you did not, you should resort to sayings like Thaan padhi, Deyvam Padhi (Translation: Man does half, God does half) and continue your visits to the temple like a proper devout would do.

The topic of temples reminded me of a friend of mine, who had a kudumba kshetram (Family temple) attached to their home. She used to tell me tales of how her uncles judiciously used all the money dropped into the temple boxes by the temple devotees for financing their alchohol needs. A temple in Tamil Nadu, that dates back to the 17th Century, takes it a step further, with the Gods having to be appeased with alchohol. Photos of the temple indicate that offerings being made range from bottles of high quality scotch to locally brewed concoctions. The holy priest then bathes the idols in the offered alchohol (or rather parts of it) during the customary rituals. Now thats my kind of God!

The patrons of the Velankanni Mathave, our Lady of Health as she is called, are organizing an 11 day meet and have decided to distribute ten lakh worth of masks to the people as protection in these times of Swine Flu. One wonders if the Mathave herself cannot be sufficient protection, health being her department and all.