Tomorrow is Karadayan nonbu. This nonbu (vrat) is observed for the long life of the husbands, hence the main ritual for this nonbu is tying of the nonbu charadu (yellow thread, similar to the one the bridegroom ties around the neck of the bride) at the time of the Meena Shankranti. This year the time given for this ritual is between 8.15 and 9.00pm IST.
Many readers have been asking me for the Nonbu adai recipe. I have already given the recipe for sweet as well as savoury adais.
I wish every one a happy nonbu. Offer Nonbu adais as neivedyam for Parvathi Devi Sametha Uma Maheshwara and pray for a long and happy married life with good health and cheer.
Let there be happiness all around!
Showing posts with label karadayan nonbu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label karadayan nonbu. Show all posts
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Cut and Dried
Well it has been a long time since my last post, once again with good reason. Most of the time in the past fortnight was spent remembering Manni in each and every small thing I did. Every time I did something, I was reminded of similar occasions during the time spent with Manni and tell my husband about that. It is really surprising how we remember somebody more when they are no longer with us. I definitely did not reminisce about Manni everyday in the past so many years.
As I said, after Sivarathri the winter goes away chanting Siva Siva. This also means that it is time to start making all the sun dried vadams and vattals (wafers and dried vegetables), pickles, etc. It is the time of the year when women get busy replenishing their inventory of vadams for the whole year and the children were made busy helping their mothers. Now many people are happy buying these things at stores and children may not even know they can be home made. When we were children, March was the month of hectic activity making vadams, pickles, processing tamarind and toor dal, etc in addition to our annual exams at school. The vadam making had to be over before Vishu (14th April) when the premonsoon showers begin. Vadam making was a big festival then. All the households were engaged in these activities and would help each other in the process of making vadams. Children had the double responsibility of helping in the kitchen as well as minding the vadams when they were put out in the sun for drying. There were crows and stray dogs, besides passers by and children (whom we referred to us human crows), who would grab the vadams by 3s and 4s. We used to take turns minding the crows. I remember my brother coming into the house crying once and when asked why he was crying, he said, "I was made to sit there for 2 hours minding the crows and not a single crow came."
There were different varieties of vadams. Elai vadams, karuvadams, javvvarisi (sagopalm) karuvadams , vazhathandu (banana stem) karuvadams and perandai (Vitis Quadrangularis). In our house we made only elai vadams and karuvadams which were easier than the other vadams or so our Echiyamma thought.
The elai vadams as the name says were made on the leaves of Palasha tree (flame of the forest, Buteamonosperma). Preparing the leaves for making the vadams was itself a big process. The village cowherd would bring the leaves to all the houses from the forest. We had to select big round leaves without any holes, wash them and stack them in 10s or 20s and keep a weight on them to straighten them. This had to be done the previous evening. The next day we had to wipe the leaves with a cloth dipped in a mixture of oil and water and then start preparing the vadams. This was how it was done until I was in my teens. Then came a new way of making them by completely eliminating the use of leaves and our drudgery. There was this new contraption somebody's daughter brought from Bombay which consisted of a stand with racks for 6 plates made of tin. Our jack of all trades Muthu immediately got into the business of making dozens and dozens of them for all those who wanted. We just had to give him a used oil tin or something and he will make the vadam plates and stand. It revolutionised vadam making. To this day, we use this contraption.
Karuvadams were made by pressing the cooked rice flour and drying them.
This also is the season of preparing kadugumanga or vadumanga (Tamil) which again is a time consuming process. This is also the time when tamarind is processed. This takes days and days. The tamarind had to be shelled and dried and the seeds removed and the dried tamarind preserved in earthenware pots or ceramic jars with a sprinkling of salt.
Toor pods were shelled and the seeds were soaked in a mixture of clay and water for a couple of days until the grams sprouted. They were then sun dried when the mud sticking to the grams would dry and fall off and the grams were lighly pounded to remove the husk and toor dal for the whole year was made and stored.
Well, I did many of the above jobs in the last few days besides celebrating Karadayan Nonbu and my first born's birthday. More importantly I filmed all the above so that I can share with you all my recipes for the above. Fully justified in not blogging, don't you think?
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Important festivals in March 2009
10th March 2009 - Maasi Pournami (all Maasi Pournami related posts)
The full moon day in each Tamil month falls on a different star or nakshatra and that day is generally known by the name of the star. In the month of Thai (January-February) it falls on Poosam nakshatram and hence known as Thai Poosam. In the following month, Maasi (February-March) it falls on the Makam nakshatram and known as Maasi Makam, though in our parts it is more popularly known as Maasi Pournami. Offering of Payasam to Lord Siva after the moon rises and distributing the payasam to children are the important rituals of the day.
14th March 2009 - Karadayan Nonbu (2008, 2007, all Nonbu related posts)
As I had written earlier, this particular pooja is offered at the time of the birth of the new month Panguni (Meena) which varies every year. This year the Sankramanam (time of birth of the new month) is at 2.54 pm and hence pooja and neyvedyam to be offered at that time. Neyvedyam - Adai
27th March 2009 - Ugadi
Ugadi is the new year day for Telugus as well as Kannadigas
The full moon day in each Tamil month falls on a different star or nakshatra and that day is generally known by the name of the star. In the month of Thai (January-February) it falls on Poosam nakshatram and hence known as Thai Poosam. In the following month, Maasi (February-March) it falls on the Makam nakshatram and known as Maasi Makam, though in our parts it is more popularly known as Maasi Pournami. Offering of Payasam to Lord Siva after the moon rises and distributing the payasam to children are the important rituals of the day.
14th March 2009 - Karadayan Nonbu (2008, 2007, all Nonbu related posts)
As I had written earlier, this particular pooja is offered at the time of the birth of the new month Panguni (Meena) which varies every year. This year the Sankramanam (time of birth of the new month) is at 2.54 pm and hence pooja and neyvedyam to be offered at that time. Neyvedyam - Adai
27th March 2009 - Ugadi
Ugadi is the new year day for Telugus as well as Kannadigas
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Karadayan Nonbu 2008
I am sure all of you would have celebrated Karadayan nonbu in the traditional manner. I celebrated it as usual with sweet and salty adais. As the time for the nonbu this year was a convenient breakfast time there was no hassle of preparing a separate breakfast. That helped a lot in getting ready for the Puja. This time round, I am in Hyderabad and we have an Arali tree right in the front yard. So Arali flowers were no problem. The adais came out perfect also. On the whole, a very satisfying nonbu.
It gives me great joy to see that a great many people have visited my blog on the eve of Karadayan nonbu. This invariably means that even in the midst of a very busy life, people want to keep up with our traditions and observe the important rituals for the well being of one and all. Festivals like these inculcate our rich culture in the growing children of today, especially since most people live far away from their native places and people have to be extra vigilant to remember these festivals that are popular only among a select set.
As always, on such festival days, I go back down the memory lane and try to remember how I celebrated nonbu in the previous years. In my Puthucode days, the nonbu was a big festival as everyone around was celebrating it. The whole village was filled with fragrance of roasted rice flour and Arali flowers. In Bangalore some years later, we were the only people celebrating in the whole street. Of course my sister-in-law would come visiting bringing her adais. This time around perhaps I am the only one celebrating the festival in the whole colony. Each nonbu has been different from the other, in one way or the other.
All said and done, my Puthucode nonbu always tops my sweet memories. It was totally relaxed for everyone. There was no last minute shopping to do and most importantly the whole run-up to the nonbu was delegated efficiently and each person got a job that she was capable of; a little girl of 5 would be asked to keep the flowers in the neyvedyam leaves and an older girl would have to get the flowers from the garden and string them. The preparations started well in advance with the maid pounding the rice. She knew exactly how much rice was to be pounded, though she would ask my echiyamma, “Shall I bring 1 kg of rice from the pathayam (a wooden box in which rice was stored).” My echiyamma would say, “I think it should be sufficient, or else take 1-1/2 kg”. Having got the rice pounded well in advance, there was enough time to roast the flour. Even if by chance my mother didn’t get the time to do it immediately, there would always be some neighbours dropping by just to say hi to my Echiyamma. During the conversation, either they would ask or my echiyamma would enquire of them “Singari (or Lakshmi or Ammu or Chellam as the case may be) have you roasted the rice flour for nonbu?” to which she would reply, “Yes echiyamma, I had some free time last evening”. Then my echiyamma would say, “Sita has not found time to roast the flour”. Dear Singari mami would immediately come to the kitchen and tell my mother, “Sita, where is the rice flour? While I am here, I might as well roast it for you”. In 5 minutes the rice flour was roasted, in between exchanging some juicy gossip from the village. Nobody considered it a burden to lend a helping hand to anyone, even if they had spent the whole day working in their own kitchen. Singari mami would be properly rewarded when the next lot of mangoes or jackfruits or other such things came from our farmhouse. And we all thought we were one family. There was never a feeling of haves and have nots among the whole village. My mother would think nothing of leaving a crying baby with Singari mami to be taken care of while she was very busy. Singari mami was only too happy to take care of a wailing baby, though she had her own house filled with growing grandchildren. I can just indulge in this reminiscing game forever and forget all about my surroundings. So sweet were those days and the nonbu adais!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Karadayan Nonbu
I just cannot believe that it is already one year since I wrote about Karadayan Nonbu. It cetainly doesn’t feel like that long. Time really flies. The usual question people ask us when we meet is, “ How do you spend your time”. I can only ask them in reply, “what time?” I can actually hear my sons saying, ”you will never get time.” It is true, I somehow manage to fill my time to the brim with the result that my only complaint always is that I don’t have enough time.
We are back to the malayalam month of Meena or Panguni in Tamil. As usual we observed Karadayan nonbu on the 1st of Meena. This year, the sankrama was at 2.30am on the 15th and hence the priest conveniently announced that 6.30-7.30pm on the 14th would be the auspicious time to do the pooja. When I asked him why he advanced the time, he said, “Madam, nobody will get up at that hour and observe the puja. 6.30-7.30pm on the 14th is auspicious for conducting any puja as per the Panchanga." The priests have to be very diplomatic these days. I can remember times when we would keep awake till 11.30pm to do the puja or would wake up at 1.00am and get ready to do the puja. I must admit, however, that I also did the puja at about 7.30pm on the 14th this year. Our family priest has many fine qualities, but when it comes to mixing the practical with the spiritual, he excels himself.
An interesting point about this puja is that in our village (I don’t know about other places) and also in my husband’s village, jasmine or other types of flowers are not offered during this puja. The flowers offered are what are known as Arali in Malayalam which has a sweet frangrance. As in the past years we managed to get the flowers from a nearby garden this year also.
As usual, I prepared both vella adai and kara adai as per my tried and tested recipe. Some of my friends say, they use karamani or chickpeas in place of green gram dal. I feel green gram dal gives body to the adai and also makes it very soft.
Although, I had blogged about the recipe last year, I didn’t have the pictures for it then. Each of these pictures follows the various steps in making the adais: making the balls out of the dough, flattening them, placing them on the steamer and then finally the steamed adais.
After preparing the adais, I got ready for the puja. There is one place for each female member of the family, however small the girl is. Even if there is only one female member, usually we never have one neyvedyam kolam (rangoli). It is usually two. I offer the neyvedyam and charadu for the Tulsi plant.
After the kolam is made, the puja offering is prepared thus: A banana leaf is put on each kolam. One sweet adai, one kozhukkattai and butter, two bananas, betel leaves and nuts, two pieces of turmeric, arali flowers and the all important Nonbu Charadu.
After doing the puja, the charadu is tied around the neck and the neyvedyam is partaken by the offerers. (This is one of the few occasions that ladies get to eat before men). Though you can have any number of adais, it is only one adai and one kozhukkattai kept during the puja, The verses for the puja are
Urukkatha vennayum Oradayum notren
Orukalum en kanavan piriyathirukkanam
which can be translated as “I offer butter and one adai, let me and my husband be together always."
The Uppadai or the savoury adai is also not offered as neyvedyam. It is only to have as a savoury item after the sweet adais.
We are back to the malayalam month of Meena or Panguni in Tamil. As usual we observed Karadayan nonbu on the 1st of Meena. This year, the sankrama was at 2.30am on the 15th and hence the priest conveniently announced that 6.30-7.30pm on the 14th would be the auspicious time to do the pooja. When I asked him why he advanced the time, he said, “Madam, nobody will get up at that hour and observe the puja. 6.30-7.30pm on the 14th is auspicious for conducting any puja as per the Panchanga." The priests have to be very diplomatic these days. I can remember times when we would keep awake till 11.30pm to do the puja or would wake up at 1.00am and get ready to do the puja. I must admit, however, that I also did the puja at about 7.30pm on the 14th this year. Our family priest has many fine qualities, but when it comes to mixing the practical with the spiritual, he excels himself.
An interesting point about this puja is that in our village (I don’t know about other places) and also in my husband’s village, jasmine or other types of flowers are not offered during this puja. The flowers offered are what are known as Arali in Malayalam which has a sweet frangrance. As in the past years we managed to get the flowers from a nearby garden this year also.
As usual, I prepared both vella adai and kara adai as per my tried and tested recipe. Some of my friends say, they use karamani or chickpeas in place of green gram dal. I feel green gram dal gives body to the adai and also makes it very soft.
Although, I had blogged about the recipe last year, I didn’t have the pictures for it then. Each of these pictures follows the various steps in making the adais: making the balls out of the dough, flattening them, placing them on the steamer and then finally the steamed adais.
After preparing the adais, I got ready for the puja. There is one place for each female member of the family, however small the girl is. Even if there is only one female member, usually we never have one neyvedyam kolam (rangoli). It is usually two. I offer the neyvedyam and charadu for the Tulsi plant.
After the kolam is made, the puja offering is prepared thus: A banana leaf is put on each kolam. One sweet adai, one kozhukkattai and butter, two bananas, betel leaves and nuts, two pieces of turmeric, arali flowers and the all important Nonbu Charadu.
After doing the puja, the charadu is tied around the neck and the neyvedyam is partaken by the offerers. (This is one of the few occasions that ladies get to eat before men). Though you can have any number of adais, it is only one adai and one kozhukkattai kept during the puja, The verses for the puja are
Urukkatha vennayum Oradayum notren
Orukalum en kanavan piriyathirukkanam
which can be translated as “I offer butter and one adai, let me and my husband be together always."
The Uppadai or the savoury adai is also not offered as neyvedyam. It is only to have as a savoury item after the sweet adais.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Recipe: Nonbu Adai
Among the various things that delayed my blogging as I said yesterday, was the continuing power shutdowns, we have been experiencing since last week. The power shout downs are anywhere between 1 hr to 8 hrs of duration many times a day. With the result, by the time, I settle down to blog, the power fails and by the time the power is restored I am busy with something else. Today we had a power shutdown from 10am to 6 pm and again from 6.30 pm to 7.30pm. They say, there is problem in the orissa grid.
Before we have another power shutdown, let me write about Nonbu neyvedyam.
Nonbu Neyvedyam
As Savitri was in the forest, the neyvedyam for the nonbu was made from very simple things immediately available at the forest. The raw materials are riceflour, jaggery , coconut and moongdal. It is called Nonbu adai.We have invented a savoury form of adai also to go with it, as in the olden days, we fasted until the nonbu time and that was the first meal we were eating on that day.
Nonbu Adai.
Ingredients:
Rice flour 1 cup
Moong dal 2 tbsps
Jaggery 1¼ cup
Coconut gratings ½ cup
Cardamom powder 1 tsp.
Plantain leaves to steam the adais.
Method:
Roast the rice flour to a golden colour. Roast the moong dal also to a golden red colour. Cook the moong dal with just enough water, until half done. Melt the jaggery in 2 cups of water. When the jaggery is melted add the half cooked moong dal, coconut gratings, cardamom powder and roasted rice flour and cook until all the water is absorbed. Allow to cool.
Make small pieces of plantain leaves. Make small balls of the cooked rice flour (the size of a small orange) and keep on the plantain leaf. Flatten with the palm and make a small hole in the centre. Keep the plantain leaves on a steamer and steam for 10 mnts. This is offered with a blob of butter.
Savoury adai.
Ingredients:
Rice flour: 1 cup
Moong dal 2 tbsp.
Coconut gratings ½ cup
Green chillies 2 or 3 cut into small pieces
Mustard 1 tsp
Urad dal 1 tsp
Hing ½ tsp.
Curry leaves a few sprigs
Oil 1 tbsp.
Salt to taste
Plantain leaves to steam the adai.
Method.
Roast the rice flour and moong dal separately to a golden brown colour. Cook the moong dal in just enough water, until half done. Heat the oil in a pan and add the hing. Add the mustard. When mustard starts spluttering, add the urad dal, green chillies and curry leaves. Add 2 cups of water, salt to taste and the coconut gratings. When the water starts boiling add the half cooked moong dal and rice flour and cook until all the water is absorbed. Allow to cool.
Make balls of the cooked rice flour and flatten on plantain leaves and steam for 10 mnts.
Before we have another power shutdown, let me write about Nonbu neyvedyam.
Nonbu Neyvedyam
As Savitri was in the forest, the neyvedyam for the nonbu was made from very simple things immediately available at the forest. The raw materials are riceflour, jaggery , coconut and moongdal. It is called Nonbu adai.We have invented a savoury form of adai also to go with it, as in the olden days, we fasted until the nonbu time and that was the first meal we were eating on that day.
Nonbu Adai.
Ingredients:
Rice flour 1 cup
Moong dal 2 tbsps
Jaggery 1¼ cup
Coconut gratings ½ cup
Cardamom powder 1 tsp.
Plantain leaves to steam the adais.
Method:
Roast the rice flour to a golden colour. Roast the moong dal also to a golden red colour. Cook the moong dal with just enough water, until half done. Melt the jaggery in 2 cups of water. When the jaggery is melted add the half cooked moong dal, coconut gratings, cardamom powder and roasted rice flour and cook until all the water is absorbed. Allow to cool.
Make small pieces of plantain leaves. Make small balls of the cooked rice flour (the size of a small orange) and keep on the plantain leaf. Flatten with the palm and make a small hole in the centre. Keep the plantain leaves on a steamer and steam for 10 mnts. This is offered with a blob of butter.
Savoury adai.
Ingredients:
Rice flour: 1 cup
Moong dal 2 tbsp.
Coconut gratings ½ cup
Green chillies 2 or 3 cut into small pieces
Mustard 1 tsp
Urad dal 1 tsp
Hing ½ tsp.
Curry leaves a few sprigs
Oil 1 tbsp.
Salt to taste
Plantain leaves to steam the adai.
Method.
Roast the rice flour and moong dal separately to a golden brown colour. Cook the moong dal in just enough water, until half done. Heat the oil in a pan and add the hing. Add the mustard. When mustard starts spluttering, add the urad dal, green chillies and curry leaves. Add 2 cups of water, salt to taste and the coconut gratings. When the water starts boiling add the half cooked moong dal and rice flour and cook until all the water is absorbed. Allow to cool.
Make balls of the cooked rice flour and flatten on plantain leaves and steam for 10 mnts.
Nonbu
Once again, I was forced into a long hibernation. I was busy going about making preparations for the Soundarya Lahari Pooja I had planned. I had to invite many of my friends for the function. This is a function thought about and performed by a small group of ladies who had practised reciting the 100 slokas of the great Sankaracharya. Our teacher here has given music to it and each sloka is sung in a different raga. The function is a simple one in which we assemble in the house of the one desirous of conducting it and sing the slokas. We perform a simple pooja to a specially decorated picture and or an idol of any deity preferably DEVI in whose praise the slokas have been rendered. At the end of the recitation Arathi is performed and a neivedyam is offered. Depending on the time of day we arrange lunch or light refreshments to all the invitees. The function at our house was spread over a little over three hours. I was also planning for a Goa trip immediately thereafter, which also needed some hectic reorganizing of my various projects scheduled for the last week of March. At the end, however, the Goa trip did not come through due to other reasons.
Soundarya Lahari Pooja, of course, was conducted in a highly satisfying manner with the Blessings of Annaporneswari. It was well attended and it went off as planned in every detail.
In between on 14th March, we celebrated "Karadayan Nonbu" or more simply Nonbu(in typical Kerala Iyer lingua). This is a very important festival in our calendar. This festival is celebrated at the time of Meena Sankramam (the time the sun enters the Pisces sign, according to the solar calendar) and hence the time of offering the pooja falls at different times of the day in different years. We offer Pooja any time during the 24 hours, from the wee hours to mid-afternoon to evening to midnight. Hence, this festival is very different from all the festivals, which are celebrated on a particular day of the year at a particular time.
This year the time for the pooja was at 8.15pm, which was a very convenient time to do the pooja. This pooja is especially done for the well being and long life of the husband and even little girls are made to perform this pooja so that they will get a good husband and a happy married life. The neyvedyam (offering) for the pooja is a very simple steamed sweet cake and butter. The ladies and girls also wear a "manjal charadu"(a thread dipped in turmeric paste), similar to one tied during the time of marriage. In the olden days, when we were children, it was a practise to keep this manjal charadu till the next nonbu or as long as it lasted. We never removed it on our own. These days most people remove it the next day after the pooja, for reasons best known to them.
This pooja is conducted in remembrance of the dedication and determination of the faithful mythological Savitri, in bringing back the life of her husband Satyavan from the God of death, Yama. The story goes as follows. Savitri was a princess of a rich kingdom in ancient India and was the only child of her parents. When she reached marriageable age, she told her father that she would herself search for a suitable husband for her. She went on a tour of the vast kingdom traversing the various landscapes and forests and mountains. At last in a forest, she met an old couple and their young and handsome son serving them, living in a simple hut. She found out that the couple were the king and queen of a nearby kingdom, banished from their kingdom by their enemies. Savitri was overcome by the devotion shown by the son to his old parents and decided that he was the suitable husband for her. The name of this young man was Satyavan. True to his name, Satyavan was very honest and dedicated to his parents. Savitri returned to her parents and announced that she would marry only Satyavan. The King and the queen were not very happy to marry their only child to the son of a banished king. But Savitri was steadfast on her decision and the parents had to yield to her. The palace astrologer, however warned her that according to his horoscope, Satyavan had only one more year's life left and he would die in a year. Savitri was not to be discouraged with this announcement either. The marriage of Satyavan and Savitri was performed and Savitri went to live with her husband and in-laws in the forest. Savitri took care of her husband and old in-laws with dedication and devotion and followed Satyavan whenever he went inside the forest in search of food and fuel. Days passed and the last day of Satyavn's life as per the prediction dawned. Savitri insisted on accompanying Satyvan to the forest. Satyavan made Savitri sit under a tree and went to fetch fruits and logs for fuel. After sometime, he returned feeling very tired. Savitri made him lie in a bed made of fresh green leaves keeping his head in her lap. As Satyavan started closing his eyes, there appeared in front of Savitri, a huge figure with a bison for his vahana. Savitri with her dedication and devotion could immediately recognize the figure as that of Yama, the God of death. She immediately saluted him and asked him the purpose of his visit. Yama replied that as destined Satyavan's life span was over and he had come to take his life to the other world. Saying this Yama started walking away with Satyavan's soul. Savitri left the body of the lifeless Satyavan under the tree and started following Yama. Yama forbade her from following him, saying she could not follow him to the other world, as Yamaloka was inaccessible to living beings. Only souls of dead beings are taken there. Savitri insisted on following her husband’s soul. Yama could not stop her from following him. At last, Yama agreed to grant her three wishes on condition that she would go back. She agreed. She asked as the first boon, that her in-laws get back their lost kingdom which Yama granted readily. For the second wish she asked that, as she was the only child of her parents, they get more children. This was also granted by Yama immediately. As the last wish, she asked that she be granted the wish of having many children which also was granted by Yama in his eagerness to get rid of her. Only after granting this wish, did Yama realise that he had been tricked into granting Satyavan life, as a pious and pathivratha (chaste) woman like Savitri cannot have children if Satyavan were to be dead. Yama had to accept his defeat and restore the life of Satyavan. Savitri came back to the tree where she had left the lifeless body of Satyavan. By the blessings of Yama Satyvan woke up as if from his sleep and Savitri narrated the happenings to him. To offer her gratitude to the Gods, Savitri immediately made a simple neyvedyam with available things on hand and tied the mangala sutra once again as her husband had got back his life. This neyvedyam is also offered on a leaf of a forest tree, as against the usual plantain leaf used for all poojas.(more about this special, but simple neyvedyam later)
To instil such dedication and devotion in married life, this story is repeated to the young girls and the pooja is performed every year at the time of meena sankramam.
Soundarya Lahari Pooja, of course, was conducted in a highly satisfying manner with the Blessings of Annaporneswari. It was well attended and it went off as planned in every detail.
In between on 14th March, we celebrated "Karadayan Nonbu" or more simply Nonbu(in typical Kerala Iyer lingua). This is a very important festival in our calendar. This festival is celebrated at the time of Meena Sankramam (the time the sun enters the Pisces sign, according to the solar calendar) and hence the time of offering the pooja falls at different times of the day in different years. We offer Pooja any time during the 24 hours, from the wee hours to mid-afternoon to evening to midnight. Hence, this festival is very different from all the festivals, which are celebrated on a particular day of the year at a particular time.
This year the time for the pooja was at 8.15pm, which was a very convenient time to do the pooja. This pooja is especially done for the well being and long life of the husband and even little girls are made to perform this pooja so that they will get a good husband and a happy married life. The neyvedyam (offering) for the pooja is a very simple steamed sweet cake and butter. The ladies and girls also wear a "manjal charadu"(a thread dipped in turmeric paste), similar to one tied during the time of marriage. In the olden days, when we were children, it was a practise to keep this manjal charadu till the next nonbu or as long as it lasted. We never removed it on our own. These days most people remove it the next day after the pooja, for reasons best known to them.
This pooja is conducted in remembrance of the dedication and determination of the faithful mythological Savitri, in bringing back the life of her husband Satyavan from the God of death, Yama. The story goes as follows. Savitri was a princess of a rich kingdom in ancient India and was the only child of her parents. When she reached marriageable age, she told her father that she would herself search for a suitable husband for her. She went on a tour of the vast kingdom traversing the various landscapes and forests and mountains. At last in a forest, she met an old couple and their young and handsome son serving them, living in a simple hut. She found out that the couple were the king and queen of a nearby kingdom, banished from their kingdom by their enemies. Savitri was overcome by the devotion shown by the son to his old parents and decided that he was the suitable husband for her. The name of this young man was Satyavan. True to his name, Satyavan was very honest and dedicated to his parents. Savitri returned to her parents and announced that she would marry only Satyavan. The King and the queen were not very happy to marry their only child to the son of a banished king. But Savitri was steadfast on her decision and the parents had to yield to her. The palace astrologer, however warned her that according to his horoscope, Satyavan had only one more year's life left and he would die in a year. Savitri was not to be discouraged with this announcement either. The marriage of Satyavan and Savitri was performed and Savitri went to live with her husband and in-laws in the forest. Savitri took care of her husband and old in-laws with dedication and devotion and followed Satyavan whenever he went inside the forest in search of food and fuel. Days passed and the last day of Satyavn's life as per the prediction dawned. Savitri insisted on accompanying Satyvan to the forest. Satyavan made Savitri sit under a tree and went to fetch fruits and logs for fuel. After sometime, he returned feeling very tired. Savitri made him lie in a bed made of fresh green leaves keeping his head in her lap. As Satyavan started closing his eyes, there appeared in front of Savitri, a huge figure with a bison for his vahana. Savitri with her dedication and devotion could immediately recognize the figure as that of Yama, the God of death. She immediately saluted him and asked him the purpose of his visit. Yama replied that as destined Satyavan's life span was over and he had come to take his life to the other world. Saying this Yama started walking away with Satyavan's soul. Savitri left the body of the lifeless Satyavan under the tree and started following Yama. Yama forbade her from following him, saying she could not follow him to the other world, as Yamaloka was inaccessible to living beings. Only souls of dead beings are taken there. Savitri insisted on following her husband’s soul. Yama could not stop her from following him. At last, Yama agreed to grant her three wishes on condition that she would go back. She agreed. She asked as the first boon, that her in-laws get back their lost kingdom which Yama granted readily. For the second wish she asked that, as she was the only child of her parents, they get more children. This was also granted by Yama immediately. As the last wish, she asked that she be granted the wish of having many children which also was granted by Yama in his eagerness to get rid of her. Only after granting this wish, did Yama realise that he had been tricked into granting Satyavan life, as a pious and pathivratha (chaste) woman like Savitri cannot have children if Satyavan were to be dead. Yama had to accept his defeat and restore the life of Satyavan. Savitri came back to the tree where she had left the lifeless body of Satyavan. By the blessings of Yama Satyvan woke up as if from his sleep and Savitri narrated the happenings to him. To offer her gratitude to the Gods, Savitri immediately made a simple neyvedyam with available things on hand and tied the mangala sutra once again as her husband had got back his life. This neyvedyam is also offered on a leaf of a forest tree, as against the usual plantain leaf used for all poojas.(more about this special, but simple neyvedyam later)
To instil such dedication and devotion in married life, this story is repeated to the young girls and the pooja is performed every year at the time of meena sankramam.
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