Puthaandu Vaazhthukkal! Or greetings of the new year!
The earthquakes, floods and tornadoes didn’t stop on January 1, nor did they cease on the Chinese New Year or its Kannada equivalent. Now I hold out hope for the year on this first day of the month of Chitra, according to the Hindu Panchangam. Today is also Vaisakhi in North India, Vishu in Kerala and Good Friday in the western world. The coincidence with a Christian holiday is just that, incidentally. I hope my Jewish friends enjoyed a great seder two days ago.
So, why two different South Indian calendars? While the people of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh adhere to a lunar almanac, the people of Tamil Nadu and Kerala follow a solar one. How interesting is that, especially given that most harvest calendars stick to a lunar schedule.
Today I wish I were in Tiruvadaimaradur, a major Saivite pilgrimage destination, the site of an annual New Year car festival and right next door to the childhood home of my maternal grandmother.
Tiruvadaimaradur Raja Gopuram (or Prime Pyramid) . Courtesy The Hindu
An important destination for Saivite pilgrims [is the] 1,200-year-old Sri Brahat Sundara Gujambal [and] Jothi Mahalingeswarar temple. Popular for all the three factors namely sthalam, moorthi and tirtham, the temple has seven gopurams, seven prakarams, 32 holy tirthams and 27 celestial star lingams …
… Saiva saints, Pattinathar, Pathragiriyar, Arunagirinathar, Varagunapandian and Karuvoor Thevar have all sung the glory of Mahalingeswarar. It was here that Adi Sankara was said to have been enlightened on the supremacy of Advaita philosophy.
Instead, I cook paruppu (better known to you as daal or lentils), pray for peace and refrain from ingesting anything … ahem … bad for me. Such is the transmogrified reverence of a Midwest- and Louisiana-soaked Brahmin Saivite geologist.
So, are the locusts going to do an about face now? We shall see.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence … everyone in the world has a celebration of spring ….. whether it be Passover, Easter, Vishu, Puthaandu, Ostara or just the vernal equinox …. I think that there is an inborn need to celebrate life at this time of year, and we just throw religion into the mix because we like to complicate things :)
and happy new year !
Happy New Year to you too.
Kannada? I thought they were just like Americans…
(rim shot)