Dear Ajit,

In the previous edition I have written about my native place Kalpathy. In this edition I am dealing with one more important place in which resides a MUST BE PROPITIATED" deity for families belonging to Maudgalya gothram.

I am quoting below ad-verbatim three paragraphs from the souvenir "TARAKKAD SREE SIMHANADA BHAGVATI MANDALA VILAKKU MAHOTSAVAM" (1st to 28th December 2000).

To the east of the Simhanada Bhagavathy Temple is the very old nagarghostam at Tarakkad, the abode of serpent Gods. It is said that when our ancestors conducted Abhishekams in the Nagarghostam, a King Cobra used to give Darsan to the Bhaktas at the time of Deeparadhana and actually consumed the milk kept there, within this Nagarghostam, Sastha Saannidyam also exists.

"There was a big Tamarind tree in the Nagarghostam. The owner of the nearby house by name Ratnam wanted to cut off the said tree and sell the same, against the Villagers advice. When he cut the tree he swooned and in a week's time died.

"Some Brahmin families belonging to the Maudgalya Gothram perform yearly poojas & Abhishekams. As a family tradition presently so many Bhaktas perform poojas by the Nagarghostam to beget children and are blessed with children and get rid of the Sarpadosham."

The Simhanada Bhagavathy Temple is a few furlongs away from Palakkad Bus Stand. More about this Temple in some future editions.

Coming back to the Nagarghostam, it is to be understood, that in all probability, ancient India was first inhabited by Tribals, then by Dravidans who might have come from Sumeria & then by Aryans, who came from Persian Region. To the credit of we Indians, it must be told, that while adopting new customs & traditions, we never abandoned old traditions totally. This is in striking contrast to the Western & West Asian regions, where new religions & civilizations are erected on the altar of the old civilizations & traditions.

So most of our Hindu families have a tribal god, a Dravidian god & an Aryan God. The Tribal deities are mostly in the form of Serpent Gods & Kavu for ammas (Devis localised forms). The Dravidian Gods are Sasta, Murugan, Venkatachalapathy, Ganapathy & Shankar or Shiva. The Aryan Gods are the various incarnations of Vishnu Of course there are some overlapping here & there.

As far as our families are concerned, our Tribal God is the Nagar ghostam referred to above and the Manapullikavu Bhagavathy.

I had once requested my uncle Late Shri. Ramachandra Ganapathigal regarding the importance of this Nagarghostam to the families belonging to Maudgalya Gothram. This story he narrated is given below.

One of our old Ancestors was performing penance at the place where the Nagarghostam exists now. During his meditation he had a hallucination about a Cobra showing his protruded tongue before him. It requested him to remove a big thorn which has stuck in his tongue. When he opened his eyes, he saw a real Cobra before him. As he has already been foretold, our ancestor took courage and slowly removed the thorn from the Cobra's mouth. The story further says that because of this Good act, our ancestor was told that his descendants will never be bit by serpents. From that day onwards, families belonging to Maudgalya Gothram come here and worship the serpent God.

Another incident told by my uncle is as follows. When he was a baby, his mother put him in her laps and was churning buttermilk to get curd. Suddenly to her horror, she saw that a snake was crossing from her left side to her right side moving through her laps. She was dumbfounded and did not know what to do due to terror stricken mind. However, the snake just went away without harming either the mother or the son.

During his lifetime Shri. Ramachandra Ganapathigal tried his best to purchase this land so that regular poojas can be performed. However he could not succeed.

Till recently the place was lying unattended. As most of the families belonging to Maudgalya Gothram reside outside Kerala I tried to get some priests to perform Abhishekas on each Shashti. Srirama Vadhyar was initially performing these poojas. When he shifted to Tanjore I have now requested Shri. Lakshminarayanan of Tarakkad to look after the performance of these poojas on our behalf.

Through these columns I request all members of Maudgalya Gothram from Palghat side to contribute on a monthly basis for performance of this Abhishekham and also to visit the place whenever they can.

I was told that the villagers had some omens after which they themselves renovated this Nagarghostam. After that regular poojas are being performed.

My Uncle's dream was finally realised. Let us try to maintain the lofty traditions set up by our ancestors.