A trip to Sabarimala: Travelogue

A trip to Sabarimala: Travelogue

12th December 2004, 5 AM Kalpetta, Northern kerala, Southern India

The faint light through the lush green forest was the first scene of the day for me. I was on my trip from Bangalore, the IT city of India, to Calicut, one of the oldest city of northern kerala with rich historical background. The bus had started crawling through the never ending hairpin bends. This is from Kalpetta and called the "Thamarassery bend". This maneuver takes us from the elevation of the Deccan Plateau to the sea level. Calicut is one of the historic towns on the western cost of South India. In AD 1498 Vasco-de-Gama, the Portugal business man had landed here which led to the formation of East India company after many years.

My thoughts were disturbed when I was informed that we had reached the destination. I had a busy day ahead of me as I had to prepare for my 1 week trip to Sabarimala, the holy place for pilgrimage especially for south Indians.

If you are not bored yet, I would like to share my views on the peculiarity of this pilgrim center. I especielly like the concept behind this which is one of the most debated subject of contemporary India, the communal harmony. I think this is a sole place where Hindus and Muslims go together for pilgrimage. This ritual has a strong backing from the mythology. It has been going on for years without any kind of mis- harmony from either of these communities. I sometimes wonder how can a society with such deeply rooted concept of communalharmony and high levels of literacy percentage would instigate riot among these communities. Anyway this thought can wait, otherwise I will deter from my main subject.

12th December 2004, 6.30 PM Calicut, Northern kerala, Southern India

We were 23 people in the group. There is a process called "Kettunira" for all these 23 people. This is basically the arranging of the offerings which have to be taken to the Lord Ayappa. It takes place in the presence of lot of devotees, in an Ayappa temple or the premises of the Ayappa Prathishta. After the Kettunira, there is "Annadhanam"(Food distribution) to the poor as well rich. Annadhanam will be very simple but people take it as a Prasad(from Lord Ayappa)

We finished our kettunira and "Bhiksha"(Annadhanam) and started for the train which was at 11 PM. The train would displace us from the northern part of kerala to the southern district of Kottayam. Thinking of the forthcoming physically demanding days I dozed off instanly.

13th December 2004, 5.00 AM Kottayam, Southern kerala, Southern India

I was awakened by my fellow "swami" informing me that we would have to get down in another 30 minutes. It was 5.45 AM by the time we got down at Kottayam. We took a special bus by KSRTC from the Railway station to "Erumeli". Speaking of erumeli, I am forced to talk about the local geography of this place.

Erumeli is 2 Hrs from Kottayam. We reached erumely by 8.30 AM. Took a bath in the pond and headed for the Sastha temple there. After the prayer, we started back to the othertemple in a procession. During this procession(This is called "Petta thullal") we are supposed to forger all our ego and dance like free birds, with the drummer leading us.

During this journey we have to stop at "Vavar's" Mosque an pray there also. Legend has that Vavar and Lord Ayappa were close friends. This is simple but most appealing ritual of the whole practice of this pilgrimage.

13th December 2004, 10.30 AM

We started our long walk which would end only 2 days after. It is a long stretch of circa 50 KM with almost all kinds of terrains like hill, river,stoned pathways with thorns,cool walkways with forest canopy and you name it.

The first stop after Erumeli is the one which is 7 KM by road and is called "Irumboonnikkara". This is the onset of the forest which stretches till valiyanavattom. I remember one of the tree lovers say
" If I am given enough money then I would buy a huge area of land and plant all the trees which Rama had seen during his life in the forest and would appoint Designers and labourers to maintain that.

We reached Irumboonnikara by 12 noon In a single stretch of walking which took around 1.5 Hrs. The sun was shining to its maximum power. The heat of the southern kerala was almost in its peak.

After 10 minutes of rest and re-fueling ourselves with some water we started to Kaalaketti. From here onwards I would lose all my sense of distance as the route is full of steep climbs and difficult terrain. By 1.30 in the afternoon, we were on the initial and the second steepest climb during the whole crusade. If you spare me some mathematics, the angle of the climb to the horizontal(the slope) was almost 75 degrees. This one lasted almost hald an hour. Before we started, the experienced elders had warned us not to take rest in between the steep climb because then we would have tough time and greater intertia to resume the climb.

The rest of our walk was almost effortless. We reached a place called "Kaalaketti". It is a peak of a hill where Lord shiva stopped to rest on his was to meet Lord Ayappa at Sabarimala. This place is very famous for its serene natural habitat. You can see a lot of wild animals if you watch very close.y the lowere valley of this mountain. We were warned that an 'Ottayan' (The so called single elephant) was on its trek nearby and would show up anytime. We were supposed to move in group and make loud noise to keep the elephant at bay.

Anyway we had our lunch 'Kanji' with 'Payar' .The best i can describe it is boiled rice with some vegetable cereal which i believe is the most simple food and instand energy provider. We took rest for another 1 hr so that other people in our group catch up with us.

By 3.30 PM, we started our descent towards Azhutha. It is 1 hr walk from Kaalaketti and is named after a river which flows between two hills, Azhutha and kaalaketti mala. We took some rest there and bathed in Azhutha river. The purest water(and the most rejuvenating one) which I have ever experienced. The batch swiped away all our tiredness and we all got recharged as if waking up after a long fulfilling sleep. I have to comment here about the difference it makes to be so near to the mother nature. There is ofcourse an element of risk involved. If anybody is in need of any medical attention, that would take minimum 1 day to get it as the place is so inaccessable. So "you-are-on-your-own" strategy.

We were done for the day. If you think its an unplanned improptu journey you are wrong. It is well planned and executed to the perfection. Only thing is that we dont have any modern world "Planner". Everything was in our mind. We camped at Azhutha for the day. Did Bhajans(musical form of prayer),cooked food(The same Kanji and Payar combination, in Forest you are not left with many choices) had a nice time together and was fast asleep in the lap of the dense forest among all our fellow animals.

"We were back in the time
when men lived with the nature
never concerned of tomorrow
never cribbing of today
where men were humane" ......As the poet puts it.....

The temperature was couple of degrees above freezing and we had only a thin layer of plastic sheet above us and the whole mist of the forest was piercing our skin like stink by hundreds of ants.

The sunrise was after we started our climb at 6.00 AM in the morning. In a single stretch of 1 hr climb we reached the azhutha top, at 7.00 AM in the morning. There we had to perform a ritual of throwing away the stone(Symbolic of 'paapa' (The sin)) which we collected on the first dip in the azhutha river and were carrying all along the way to azhutha top. This is one ritual symbolic of human life where we sin all our life and with that "heavy" paapa we climb the hill of life till we find the end of the hill. There everything ends and we realize our 'Paapa' and dissolve in the god. It symbolises the 'Advaitha'(being one), the much debated and enchanting thought in hindu mythology.

Thank god that at all these general stops for ghe pilgrims, people had made tentswith 'Viri'(Place to lie down and sleep, if necessary). They transport all these paraphernalias from the valley on donkey back(you can't think of an alternative transportation there!).

The next stop was at Mukkuzhi. Down the hill 1 hr descent took us to Mukkuzhi at 8 in the morning. From Mukkuzhi it was almost level way ahead till Puthusseri. We reached Puthusseri by 11 AM. At Puthusseri there is a small stream emerging from the mountain. The place Puthusseri lies between the two mountains viz. Azhutha and Karimala. it is so serene and cool place that you would not feel any fatigue of the long journey you just had. We bathed in the Puthusseri river origination from the mountainbed and resumed our long Journey. I think by this time we woulde have covered approximately 30 KMs by walk !.

From Puthusseri it is a steep climb again to Karimala(Lietrally translated to Black hill). Karimala is very famous for its continuous never ending turns and climbs. That is, at one point of time we would feel that the top of the hill is just few meters away but by the time we reach that place we would be astonished gto see the same distance again. Someone from our troup told that when he asked his doctor whether he would be able to make this journey due to the slight Angina(Chest pain) he had couple of months back, the doctor replied,(let me quote him)

"I dont know that, but I know that if you make this trip it is guaranteed that you dont have the cardiac problem any more. It is kind of a confirmation test".

I am sure this doctor would have experienced the Karimala(Just kidding).

Anyway the culmination of all mirages led to the real Karimala top. We reached there by 2 in the afternoon . All our stomachs were complaining of lack of enough food. We had some fruits that we were carrying. We started cooking lunch. One group went in search of wood and another group started washing the utensils, rice and preparing the stove etc. It was magnificient group effort and the food was ready by 3 PM. After the food we took some restin the tent. Evening we had 'Bhajana' the so called Prayer. At Karimala top also the tents were alive. People flocked the place and filled the atmosphere with almost all the dialects of southern India. I could really sense "Unity in diversity" there. All with a common immediate goal, the 'Dharshana'(meeting with the god).

The dinner was also simple but delicious. We went to bed('Mat' to be more specific) early so that in the morning we could start early.

15th December 2004, 6.00 AM, Karimala top, Pathanamthitta, Southern Kerala.

The initial rays of the sun hit us early in the morning. It took only 30 minutes for all of us to take bath and get ready. There is a well on top of the Karimala. An evergreen well where there will be pristine water always during any season. IT is believed that lord Ayappa had stopped there to drink water. It is called "Manikkinar"(The bell well ?).
It was an amazing fact for me to see a well only few feets deep on the top of the hill almost 2500 feet above MSL.

The descent from Karimala started at 6 in the morning. We were broken into small groups so that people with different walking speed could be coped up and would get atleast one person in company. Walking alone through the trails in the forest is not advisable. This time the descent felt very hard because the steepness of the route. It was very hard to control the speed of descend and we had to overwork our leg muscles. Barring that it was a pleasant trip down the hill. We could see all kinds of trees which we would never see out in the cities. There were trees which had holes in it where 2 average sized people could easily fit in.

We reached Pampa at 8.30 AM. Pampa is a river which originates from sabarimala. It is considered to be the holy river. During the Pilgrim season every year(November to January) millions of people visiting sabarimala take bath in the river. Pampa is the starting point of Sabarimala uphill which is our final destination. Though tired, we were fully charged up to see our destination materialize in front of us.

We took bath and had our breakfast (Idli with sambar) and tea. Our final climb from Pampa started at 9 in the morning. On the way we visited Saramkuthi aal(Banyan tree) where we would drop the things that we were carrying from Erumeli. Next stop is Sabari peedam. At Sabaripeedam we took some rest and came to know that one of our companion collapsedduring the final climb and had to get help from the 'Doli'(palanquin bearers) people to get himself moving. The kerala state government has provided different kinds of hispitals and emergency wing for Pilgrims on the way. So he was taken immediately to one such emergency centers and was administered with first aid medicines.

It was 11 AM when we reached Sannidhanam. We got dharshanam(Chance to see the Idol and pray) pretty fast(sometimes you need to wait in the queue overnight for that). Later we had our lunch and checked in to one of the motel. Some of us had good sleep while others running around for the offerings and abhishekam.

In the evening we came out of the motel and started wandering around the place. Some of the shops in the vicinity were contraced for 2 to 3 Crore Rs per season. That much business they make there.

Night 10.30 PM there is a special ritual in the temple called 'Harivarasanam'. When the chillness falls over the Sabarimala the so called song 'Harivarasanam' is played and the famous 18 steps to the temple which is made of gold will be decorated with karpooram(camphor). The keerthana(harivarasanam) has 18 stanzas and during each stanza, the camphor on one step is extinguished by the thanthri(the main priest). This things happens in that order and at the completion of 18th stanza the last camphor is extinguished. This is symbolic to lord ayappa going for the sleep. This is the last ritual of that day in the temple.

The next day morning we had "Dharshana" and by noon we started our journey back. The Journey down to Pampa was eventless. We reached Pampa by 11 AM. It was the 'Ulsavam' time in Sabarimala.(Ulsavam is a special period for the god where all his power concentrate). There was a ritual where Lord Ayappa starts from the top and come down all the way to Pampa on top of the elephant to take bath in Pampa river. The time Lord Ayappa takes batch(called Aarattu) the water in Pampa is considered to be holy and all the devotees takes bath too. We had a chance for that. And during this time every year, Sreekrishna Parunthu(the Eagle of Lord Sreekrishna) which indicates the divine presence would fly over the scene of this ritual. We were fortunate enough to witness that too.

And all over, with satisfied mind, we returned to Chengannur by bus. At Chengannur we had enough time before boarding the train to visit one of the local but gigantic temple of kerala. The Chengannur kshethram. Our train started at 11 PM and we were so tired that after boarding and settling down, we got up only at 7 AM in the morning when the train reached calicut, our starting point.

Journeys like these are fulfilling and gives a stir to both our mind as well body. The next day all of us would be in different places running around to live our daily life.

"And I wonder what we do
to the shivering hands stretching
from the dark dungeons of the street
as we feign to live a busy life"

Jai Hind.