Where palm leaves predict the future

Most of my travels have been to temples. The reason is pretty simple. I had or is it have been the one who was named “The sick child”. Though a few may nod their head and swear that it is true while the others may lift their glasses and say “Amen to that”, I beg to differ. Not by a huge variant, but I choose to call the illnesses that plague me something akin to manufacturing defects. Thus, I rest my case of being in pursuit of one god or another (in the pantheon gods — be it Hindu Gods, those of Abrahamic origin or anything really) in search for the elusive cure.

Come on, someone give me Sanjeevani already! And who do you think has Sanjeevani? The monkey-god, Hanuman? Nah, he brought it down from Himalayas, but like the Lady of our Good Health in Velankanni (I visited the Basilica as well, but that’s a story for another time), but it is believed that Thaiyyal Nayagi Amman, the consort of Lord Shiva in the form of Vaitheeshwaran (the god of medicine) has a pot like container in her hand which has medicinal oil which is believed to be a cure for all diseases.

This little prelude gives you enough reason to know that I would have frequented to the temple if you knew me. The funny part is that I have been there only once, and that day my mother exclaimed, “Finally!” Simply because a pilgrimage visit to Vaitheeshwaran Koil was due since about 10 or 15 years and we finally made it. Little did we know that the day of our choice for visit happened to be one of the most auspicious days (read: muhurtham). I was stunned by the crowd at the temple, so much so that I actually forgot about taking photos! With so many people milling around, we moved about very slowly to the inner sanctum to do the pooja to Vaitheeshwaran, Thayyail Nayagi and of course, Angarakan.

Like most temples, this temple too has its own lore. A good story time for the tourists and a good time to spin a yarn for the tour guides. Like every other tourist, I listened keenly to the tales of the old times and my personal guide, my mother! Anyway, of the many tales, one of it goes thus. Angaraka (the god who personifies the planet Mars), the son of Shiva was affected by leprosy. Trying everything he could, he came to Vaitheeshwaran Koil as a last resort where his father took the form of the god of medicine and cured him. And so, the temple is as considered one of the navagraha stalas as well. Here, devotes offer red cloth and garlands to appease the ruler of Mars, in hopes that he would bring good times and fortune for them in addition to praying to Vaitheeshwaran for good health.

Oh, and one of the most practiced form of worship here is to offer a handful of milagu (black pepper), uppu (salt) and vellam (jaggery) which was once dissolved in the temple tank by the devotees themselves but now it is put in a big bucket as the Dharmapuri Adheenam which oversees the administration of the temple hopes to have the tank clean.

Vaitheeswaran Koil is located at in the state of Tamil Nadu 24 km from Chidambaram. This temple has extensive landed properties including 1176 acres of dry lands and 6105 of wet lands. An important feature that of this temple is that it is the only temple in India where the Mandapam, Gopuram and the navagrahas can be found in a single straight line. Having said that, Old Pallava architecture is abundantly evident in the temple. The temple is enclosed within tall granite walls and is in the centre of the town. In the east and western sides of the temple, there are big majestic towers and there is one small tower on the rear side of the temple. There are two big corridors and separate inner corridors for the temple of God and Goddess. But like any ancient temple, this temple too is lit by natural lighting save for the occasional tube light or a 40-watts-bulb, giving it an air of supernatural, but one can definitely feel the omniscient aura of the Lord and his healing touch.

Now this is inside the temple. When one comes out of the temple, a whole new story awaits — with clad in orange and white dhothis with vibhuthi smeared on their foreheads asking out people if they need their future predicted. And if in the prediction they see a bad omen, it would be easily rectified by none other than Lord Vaitheeshwara himself, or that an occasional puja to Angaraka or Muthukumara Swamy (Murugan) would clear the path. That’s their lure for potential customers and curious foreigners who come to experience the essence of India. With their bait cast, some wait patiently while others add more sweet-talking into the mix.

But, even before I could process what was happening when one such person approached us, my guide for the day (read: my mother) literally dragged me away muttering something about ‘shady characters’ and ‘conmen’ under her breath. And thus, we marched off to the parking area and we got on the car for our ride back home. Intrigued and curious by the reactions of my mother, I slyly asked her if she had any experience with the said conmen to avoid her wrath.

That led her to regale this tale to me and an interesting one at that, if I say so myself. “We, your father and I went to the Nadi Josiyam centre in Vaitheeshwaran Koil before you were born,” she starts. “They asked us for our thumb prints and date of birth. If I remember it correctly, it was right thumb of mine and left thumb of your father… or was it the other way around? Anyway, after this was done, they asked us a series of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions that would help them identify the palm leaf that the sages with their intuitive yogic knowledge had left for us to find. But, there is no guarantee that one’s fate could be found and interpreted. There’s the catch, because as they say a good chunk of palm leaves are apparently lost!” she fumes. “Anyway, we got our reading. I must say it was a cold reading. That much was obvious. They told us about our past with good precision but at the same time being very vague and generic”, she finishes her tale quite abruptly. Not being able to stop myself, I exclaimed — “How?” “First there was not a single word about you and apparently your father must have frequented to foreign lands at least four times now and we all know what happened on that front”, she concludes glumly before adding that not all astrologers are such people who are after money.

That led to a lot of things to be desired and pondered upon. As I have been travelling around — though they were mostly temples, there were a few other places of interest added into the lot for the said trip, I see a group of foreigners who go past our car in an Incredible India bus. Oh, the irony! That led me to this… what if that particular astrologer in Chidambaram had doled out wrong predictions to Michael Wood for he himself had told that the prediction that he would one day have two daughters among other times intrigued him and that’s how “The Story of India” as we know it, came about. Well, I guess there is variety in life as in travel!

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