Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 348

THE ASCENDENCY & ECLIPSE OF BHAGAVĀN MAHĀVĪRA'S CULT 341 but two priests (arcakas) there, white robed and bare-bodied.
There was no woman in the house. They looked exactly like the other Tamil temple pujārīs of the locality, whom we usually call 'the namsiyārs'. I do not exactly recollect whether they were front-tufted or back-tufted, probably because they were very old and bald-headed. They never allowed any non-Brāhmin into their residence, and even the Brāhmins had to enter immediately after taking a bath in the tank opposite. They did not smear themselves with either holy ashes, or sandal paste, or yellow gopiclay. They gave me a spoon of diluted sugared milk and a nāgatali leaf as prasādams'. I did not then knew that they were Jaina priests.
All sundays, (ādivāras) especially those of the Srāvana-māsa (August-September), were, and still are, sacred festival days, when at night there used to be a colourful procession of the deity, Nāgarāja, called 'kongu-nāttu-vilakku', (the lamp-festival of kongunādu). A bevy of 25 or more gaily-attired devadāsīs, hailing from all the surrounding government temples of the district, stood in two parallel rows, each holding a brass ornamented lamp in her hands. The deity, carried on men's shoulders, passed between the two rows, with all pageantry and pomp, preceded by a bharatanāt yā sanseuse, dancing to the accompaniment of what was then called a 'chinnamelam' (a smaller orchestra'). The latter includes a vocalist, a flutist, a Mukhavīna player, a snake-charming drone (makudi) and a mídangam player. I was not able to understand at that time the real significance of the name 'kongu-nättu-vilakku'. It was only after fifty years that I was able to connect the Jaina religious festivals of South Canara, Coimbatore and Mysore with those at Nagercoil.
The frontage of the present structure, reconstructed about 40 years ago, has even now a wooden roof with ornamented facades of the Kerala and South Canara styles. The 22-foot high stone ramparts around the temple here erected between A.D. 1910 and 1925, after demolishing the older six-foot brick-andmortar wall.