Vellaikkaari: VIP access to the sprouts...

That's a benefit of being a foreigner in Meenambalpuram. On Tuesday I was given top secret access to the sprouts (known as mulaippaari) being grown for the Mariamman festival. A special house is chosen for this purpose and it just happens to be the one across the street from my house. I had noticed an old grandma going in and out of this thatched hut on the root all week. (And you can see this thatched hut in one of my previous photos of the Mariamman temple view from my roof) I had no idea what she was up to. On Tuesday the only other woman besides the grandma with access to the sprouts took me up there and let me inside to see. You cannot just grow them anywhere. Someone very clean has to do it and the area has to be very clean and sanctified and free of pollution (ritual and otherwise). Menstuating women cannot go in there; hence, having a grandma growing them is a good idea.

I had no idea where I was being taken until we were inside the hut. It was a pretty amazing sight. They had a tube light set up in there but the sprouts have been growing in the dark. There was about an inch of water on the floor. They even let me take some pictures which are below. I was pretty honored to be given access to this place. When Chellapandi heard I had been in there she was really shocked and wanted to know what it looked like. But then later on in the evening, before they took them out for all to see, she got to have a peek at them when they brought me back up there for a puja and picture taking time. The grandmother officiated at the puja on the roof, and everyone went there to take her blessings. Also, the mulaippaari are considered very sacred and people very much want to take their darshan.

The first pot of sprouts was taken to the temple by a woman across the street. She was taken up to the roof where she witnessed the mulaippaari and once she touched one of the vessels she became possessed with the spirit of Mariamman. Chellapandi and I were on the roof across the street so we witnessed all this. She then began to eat the leaves of the neem tree, or veeppamaram as it is called here, because Mariamman is associated with these leaves. She was swaying to and fro and Sumati, the important woman with access to the sprouts, put the pot on the woman's head, took her by the arm and led her to the temple where the sprouts were deposited. The woman was still possessed and Sumati literally dropped her on the ground outside her house across the street where she lay writhing around for quite some time.

Later on in the evening all the mullaippaari are taken out of the hut and the names of women and girls are called who have taken vows to Mariamman to carry the mullaippari in procession. The women approach the stairs up to the roof and their individual mulaippari is lowered down by relay. The men handle them at this point, but only to transfer them to the women. Then all the women and girls line up at the temple and carry the mullaippaari pots on their heads to the Aiyannar temple in BB Kulam. About 2 hours later they arrived back to the neighborhood, at about 12:30 AM, where they deposited the mulaippaari at the temple. Then the loudspeakers got cranked up again and people started blasting fireworks.

The next morning all the women and girls returned again to the temple and again took the mulaippari in procession, this time all the way across the city to the river's edge at Simhakal. They walked all the way across the city barefoot, in the blazing heat. Some young girls were carrying pots as well, but they were accompanied by their mothers who later on took over for them. The grandmother who was in charge of growing the sprouts led the procession. She is very important in this festival. She is also the one who has been leading the songs at the temple every night throughout the festival.

I very much enjoyed the mulaippari part of the festival, because I'd never really witnessed this before. I'd seen women carrying these pots downtown, but I had no idea about their significance. The festival has been educational and enjoyable for me in that sense, however the constant and unrelenting blare of the loudspeakers has cast a pall over the festivities. When so many people here HATE the loudspeakers, I simply don't know why they continue it. But fact of the matter is, it's tradition. But as of yesterday I really lost my patience because they stopped with the god songs and have now started up with cinema songs all day and night. When it was all about devotion to god, it makes one more understanding. But when you are constantly hearing songs like "We're gonna sing and sing and party like crazy" and "Last night.....UMMMMMMM YEAH" and "Do it like that, do it like that with your hand," you don't really feel like worship is what's on people's minds. And you want them to turn the freaking speakers OFF. Further, this one guy seems to have knighted himself the MC and will not shut up with the microphone. All day today he's been shouting into it. I'm not the only one who doesn't understand what he is shouting about, something about dinner tonight. Chellapandi says he is incomprehensible. But when he gets on the microphone, my lights go dim in the house. Seriously.

Tonight the festival is going to be over! I figure by 11:30 PM the loudspeakers will be turned off.

The woman in the middle is the one in charge of growing the mulaippari. To her left is a woman who seemed to be second in command. The woman in blue was an interloper as far as I could tell.

Mulaippaari