PERUNGALUR-THE ABODE OF OUR KULA DEIVAM

The September weather was bracing, with a few rain clouds building up as we cruised along NH 67 in the little Ford, covering the 217 odd kilometers between the industrial city of Coimbatore and the ancient Chola-Pallava capital of Trichy. A four hour journey brought us to the city, whose skyline is dominated by the famous Rock Fort, the ancient temple sitting atop a massif around which the whole city is centred. After dumping our luggage at the conveniently located Hotel Royal Satyam (had zeroed on the place after a little research on Make My Trip and Trip Advisor) in Singarathope in the heart of the city, took a walk to the famous Rock Fort, which was a stone’s throw away from there. A brisk climb of the 344 steps leads us to the ancient Ucchi Pillayar Temple atop the 87 m tall basalt rock. Thereafter, after an early dinner retired early as we had to leave early next morning (25 September 2014) for Perungalur, the abode of our Kula Deivam or Clan Deity. Kalpana’s dad, a pious and meticulous man had already done a lot of research for us regarding our presumed Kula Deivam- Vamsodhdharakar an avatar of Lord Siva, whose temple was located in Perungalur, a town near Pudukottai.

We took the lovely Trichy-Tanjore 8-laner, NH 67 and branched off at Sanoorapatti on SH 99 onward to Gandharvakottai and thereafter turned right on NH 226 and drove on for about 18 km to reach our destination. The total distance is about 65 km and driving time is about 1 ½ hours.

Entrance of the Vamshodharakar Temple

Perungalur turned out to be a small non-descript town. After seeking directions form a few townsfolk, we turned off on the small road that passed through an arch which led us to the main temple of the town. The most prominent temple here is dedicated to Lord Siva and his consort, known as Vamsodhdharakar and Mangalambikai respectively. We located the disabled vadyar, who stays in a small house just outside the temple. As he led us to the temple, he gave us a brief on the history of the temple, which dates back to the Chola period. One of the rulers of Chola dynasty who did not have children offered prayers for progeny, before Lord Siva for continuance of his dynasty. In response to his prayers Lord told him to install a Siva Linga facing east and another facing west and continue his prayers to them. The Temple where the deity is facing west is in Perungalur. In due course Lord answered his prayers and blessed him with children to continue his dynasty. Thus the Deity here is called "Vamsodhdharakar" meaning "perpetuator of dynasty".

Vannimara Pillayar

The vadyar thereafter proceeded to explain us the method of offering prayers to the Kula Deivam- which was actually pretty complicated. However, he sent a little boy with us to guide us through the procedure. For starters, we were asked to first to take a bath in the temple pond and in our wet dress proceed to the Sri Vannimara Pillaiyar temple and offer our prayers and offerings including paddy grains, dhoti and coconuts. But as we reached the temple pond, to our horror we realized that it had been reduced to a filthy pond with hyacinth infested sewage water. However, to satisfy the priest we just took few drops of the water and sprinkled it on our head before clearing out of the place. The Vannimara Pillaiyar temple is situated below an ancient gnarled banyan tree on the banks of the pond. The idol appeared pretty ancient and was worn with years of offerings and abhishekams.

Lord Vamshodharakar

Scan of visiting card of the Vadyar

Thereafter, we proceeded to the main temple. The Vamsodhdharakar temple is itself poorly maintained and is littered with garbage and refuse. The priest lamented that there were no funds being provided either by the district administration or the Devasthan Committee. But it just struck me; a little daily housekeeping should be possible with the help of town volunteers and from the offerings received in the temple- only probably there was no will to do so. He proceeded to tell us that the two other temples in the town were the Urumanathar Ayyanar Temple (strictly for guys-no women allowed) and an Ayyappan temple. However, since we had not proceeded as per the elaborate rituals told by him (which involved among other things, proceeding to the Ayyanar Temple in wet clothes and thereafter visiting the main Vamsodhdharakar temple) , he told us that we could not visit the other two temples and could leave after visiting the main temple only. 

Goddess Mangalambikai

Bhairava

The main deity is Lord Vamsodhdharakar, who is in the form of a Siva Linga facing West. The sanctum sanctorum, though not well maintained at all, housed a very primordial and bare Siva Linga. After paying our obeisance to the Lord, we proceeded to the sannathi of Mangalambikai, a form of Goddess Parvati, whose ancient idol faces south. However, the sanctum sanctorum is again pretty poorly maintained. In the outer parikrama of the Temple another Ganesha known as "Khshema Pillayar" has a sannathi so do Murugan, Dhakshinamoorthy, Durga, Chandikeswarar and Bhairavar. After paying our respects to all the deities in the temple, we bid farewell to the vadyar and after offering him a ritual dakshina decided to visit the other two temples too.

Ancient Horse at Urumanathar Temple

Urumanathar Sannathi

No women beyond this point!

After checking out from a couple of villagers, we were able to locate Urumunathar temple which is slightly outside the town. This is an Ayyanar temple. Ayyanar is a village god who is primarily worshipped as a guardian deity who protects the village. His priests are usually non-Brahmins, who belong to mostly the potter caste. The temples of Ayyanar are usually flanked by gigantic and colorful statues of him and his companions riding horses or elephants. This temple is no different- a giant horse idol of a long bygone age guards the flank of the temple. Apart from this a large number of stone and horse idols probably erected over a period of hundreds of years cover the complete temple yard. The temple itself is very small and has a non Brahmin priest. The idols are in the form of abstract pindis (something similar to the main deity at Vaishno Devi). Apart from Urumanathar, there is a small temple of shakti some 100 yards ahead. However, no women are allowed beyond the periphery of the complex. Hence, Kalpana had to wait out in the car after coming till the giant Horse statue that I mentioned earlier. As per the priest, the name Urumunathar originates from the fact that Lord Siva changed his appearance or urumam to appease Parvati in the form shakti who in a fit of rage had ridden away with his army of  ganas  and was able to pacify her and hold her at that location along with the army.

Malayamarungar Temple

Inside Malayamarungar Temple

The third temple is that of Ayyapan in the form of Malayamarungar or Malayappan or Hariharaputhra Saastha. As per the vadyar there, Lord Ayyapan came down from the hills of Kerala (malai in this case refers to Sabari Malai) to appease his father Lord Siva (who was angry with him for some reason) and hence is referred to as Malayappan. As per the priest here, he is our kula deivam and not Vamshotharakar as claimed by the vadyar at the latter temple. As per him, this temple is much older than the Vamshotharakar temple (which was apparently built by later kings and got prominence because of royal patronage, whereas the Malayamarungar is an ancient temple of a much older age). He also stated that a large number of Brahmin families of whom Lord Malayamarungar was the Kula Deivam there was a tradition of naming the first born either Malayappan or Hariharan. Considering that these names figure in our family tree more than once, I wondered if this theory is actually correct and Malayamarungar could well be our family deity rather than Vamsodhdharakar. 

It was later confirmed by my eldest Uncle and the Patriarch of our family, Dr H Srinivasan, Padma Shri, that our kula deivam is indeed not Vamsoddharkar but Malayamarungar who had migrated from Kerala, but it is mandatory that whoever in our family visits Malayamarungar should also visit Vamsoddharakar and do the puja there. Interestingly, besides this he also has confirmed that, Srinivasa Perumal of Tirupathi is an additional kula deivam,

Since we had finished our visits to all three temples, we decided to head back to Trichy and onward to Coimbatore. We took the route through Pudukottai this time- 18 km on NH 210 until Pudukottai and thereafter for about 52 km on NH 226 up to Trichy. The road is again very good, though the traffic was certainly heavier than our incoming route.

On the whole it felt very good to go back to the ancient roots of the family and a detailed visit to the kula deivam temples at Perungalur did make us feel a little more spiritually empowered and somewhere closer to our ancestors, many of who had probably stood at the same space and prayed to the same Gods in another age and another time !  

DR V HARIHARAN- A FREEDOM FIGHTER, SOCIAL REFORMER AND PIONEER OF THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT

Dr V Hariharan, 1941

Our grandfather, Dr V Hariharan a true Gandhian, freedom fighter, social reformer and a pioneer of the cooperative movement in India, was born at the turn of the 19th Century in a small town in South India. From there on his journey as a young man smitten by Mahatma Gandhi's call for freedom, incarceration as a political prisoner, being the only modern medical practitioner in a small town, foray into politics in a newly independent India, eventual disillusionment and finally putting his heart and soul into the cooperative movement is a story as monumental as that of India itself in the first half of the last century. Only it has so far never really been told. An educated and modern professional of his times, he himself never believed in either showcasing his work and contributions and gaining mileage out of it. It is probably because of this he found himself a misfit in the dirty grind of politics in Independent India and quit politics after dabbling in it for some time.

Birth and Early Days

Childhood Photo c.1905

He was the eldest of the eight children born to S Venkatarama Iyer (1872-1932) and Meenakshi. He was born at Bellary in the erstwhile Mysore State on 23rd March, 1899. His father , who started his career as clerk at the Tehsildar office at a salary of Rs. 12/- per month, had by this time become a Tehsildar himself. Hariharan was so named after the family deity, Ayyanar of Perungaloor (a village located between Thanjavur and Pudukkottai). He had his schooling at Bellary, Harpanahalli and Madras.


Medical Practice and Move to Arni

Wedding to Janaki, 1928

After completing SSLC in 1915, he enrolled in Royapuram Medical School, Madras (precursor of the present Stanley Medical College) in 1916 and became a Licensed Medical Practitioner (LMP) in 1921. While at Madras, he became very close to the family of his cousins (his mother's sisters' seven children, who later settled at Kanchipuram), whose eldest son was P S Srinivasan, also an LMP became his role model (Dr Hariharan later named his eldest son after him). He spent about an year, with him to gain work experience, and then set up practice at Tiruvannamalai. In 1928, he was married to Janaki (second daughter of K Krishna Iyer, Shorthand Reporter of Sub-Inspector rank and attached to the Shorthand Bureau, Police Department and located at Vellore).

He wound up his practice at Tiruvannamalai within an year as he developed severe gastro-enteritis. He went back to Kanchipuram to convalescence. While debating as to where to re-start medical practice, some prominent persons from Arni (near Vellore) approached Mr Krishna Iyer, and suggested that his son-in-law may settle down at Arni, a small town of silk weavers, as there was no modern medical practitioner there. That led to his coming to Arni in 1928 where he stayed on till 1969.

Mahatma Gandhi and the Freedom Movement

Jail Badge 1932-33

How he got involved with the freedom struggle and politics is not clear. Probably it was the influence of his hostel room mate during Medical School days, S Venkataraman ( law student and youngest brother of S. Satyamurti, a well-known Congress leader of Tamil Nadu and Leader of Congress Legislators in the Central Legislative Assembly, famous for his acerbic oratory and ready wit, and one of the founders of Suguna Vilasa Sabha of Madras) and his cousin and role model, Dr PS Srinivasan, at Kanchipuram, that around 1929 he became an active worker of Indian National Congress, besides building up a fairly flourishing medical practice. At that time there were no modern medical practitioners in and around Arni, for at least 100 sq. miles. By 1931 he had become such an enthusiastic Congressman that, despite pleadings by his father against it, he joined the Non-cooperation movement (Satyagraha) launched by Mahatma Gandhi and was imprisoned for one year from February 1932 to February 1933, first at Vellore Central Jail and then at Madurai Central Jail.

Office bearers of Arni Town Club with S.A.Venkatraman,
Collector, North Arcot District 

While in Jail, sometime in 1932, he lost his father. His father was a diabetic and had an injury in his foot due to a nail pierce, which became septic and gangrenous and he succumbed of a consequent massive infection. Dr Hariharan was refused permission by the prison authorities to visit his father on his death bed or to do the funeral rites (as the eldest son) after his death. This hurt him very badly leaving  a lasting sense of regret and anguish that resulted from that refusal. During his sojourn in the jail, Janaki shifted to Anantapur to her Father-in-law's house along with the eldest child Srinivasan (later Dr H Srinivasan) who was about 2 to 2 1/2 years old at that time. After his release from jail he returned to Arni and found another modern medical practitioner, that too an MBBS degree holder (not a Licentiate-a  qualification considered  inferior to the medical degree) had moved in and set up his dispensary next to his own old one and many of his old customers had been taken over by this rival which meant that he had to start from scratch once more and spend a lot of effort to build up his practice anew. This experience led to his not taking a holiday for many many years for fear of losing his patients to his rivals in the profession. Further, he continued to be politically quite active and became President of the Town Congress Committee, then of the Taluka Congress Committee and a member of the District Congress Committee. Mahatma Gandhi visited Arni twice, once in 1932 and the second time in 1934. During his second visit in which he was accompanied by Dr Rajendra Prasad. Gandhiji's visits aimed at boosting Harijan upliftment and the movement for the boycott of Simon Commission, Gandhiji visited Dr Hariharan's residence and held extensive consultations with him, as the latter was already actively involved in the upliftment of the impoverished weaver community of Arni. He thereafter did not extensively  participate in the Quit India movement launched by Gandhiji against the British Raj and opposing India's participation in World War II in 1942. However, he developed Socialist leanings through his friend V C Natesa Chettiar, and came in contact with  V. Subbiah (the Secretary of the Communist Party of French India, Pondicherry) whom he helped when the party was banned during the early part of World War II and he had gone underground.

Role in Post Independence Politics

With K Kamaraj & Kothandarama Chettiar 1949

After the dawn of Independence, he continued working for the Congress Party and was actively involved during the First General Election of India (though he was not given the Party ticket). He also came in close contact with K Kamaraj when the latter became the second Chief Minister of the Madras State in 1954.

However, subsequently he found it difficult to continue in Congress politics as by his own admission he felt that one had to be a sycophant to 'big' leaders like K Kamaraj to advance in the Party. His being a Brahmin, further did not help his cause as anti-Brahminism was fast emerging as the new slogan in politics in Madras State.  Therefore, during  the second  General Election of 1957 he quit the Indian National Congress and set up S A Meenakshisundara Mudaliar as an independent candidate against the Congress candidate W S Srinivasa Rao. The former however lost the election. It was then that Dr V Hariharan decided to quit active Politics and his energies in the Co-operative Movement.

The Cooperative Movement

His post political life was devoted to Co-operative Movement for the uplift of poor weavers. He had started his work among the silk weavers of Arni, organized them into a Silk weavers co-operative which would help them secure silk yarn and jari (mainly from Surat). His socialist leanings might have prompted him to do this work, and possibly his interest in the plight of Silk Weavers might have commenced from his earlier days at Kanchipuram, a well-known centre for weaving  Silk sarees.

Staff of District Co-operative Marketing/Ware Housing Corporation

In addition to being the head of the Cooperative Silk Weaver Society, he was also the President of Cooperative Building Society. He personally ensured that the plans for the Weaver Colony were successfully implemented during 1960-65. He was actively involved in setting up the Arni Consumer's Co-operative Society and the Arni Co-operative Store which is still very successfully running at Thatchur Road,Arni and also was actively involved in setting up and running the Arni Town Co-operative Bank, the North Arcot District Co-operative Bank as well as the District Co-operative Central Store.

Death and Legacy

Tamarapatra Awarded in 1972

As he developed health problems, he left his beloved Arni, his home for over 40 years and shifted to Madras in 1969. He was awarded the awarded Tamarapatra (copper inscribed memento), the highest recognition given to the leaders of India's freedom struggle, for his invaluable and significant contributions to the Freedom Struggle of India in 1972 (on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Independence) by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. The weaver colony in Arni, founded and personally supervised by him until completion  has been re-named as Hariharan Nagar in his honour.

He passed away on 6th August 1977 at Madras due to Kidney related ailments.

He had six sons and two daughters. His eldest two sons H Srinivasan and Rajan Hariharan followed his footsteps into the medical profession. The former is an internationally reputed Leprologist and a Padma Shri awardee and the latter a gastro-entrologist. The third son Ramani Hariharan joined the Indian Army and actively participated in the 1965, 1971 and IPKF operations, finally retiring as a Colonel in the Intelligence Corps of the Indian Army. The others too excelled in various fields of profession.