One of the first decisions of the Left Democratic Front government after assuming power last year was to do away with the “traditional ritual” of ‘Thalappoli’ — lining up of women and girls carrying a ‘thalam’ on which fresh paddy, coconut, flowers, and a lamp are placed — during government functions.
The general consensus in the Cabinet was that it was too much to torture women and girls in the name of a tradition.
But not many know that the symbolic ritual is believed to have its origins in the violent clashes between the Buddhist ‘avarnas’ or the backward classes and the conservative Brahminism, which was set to wipe out Buddhism from the country.
‘Amana’, a series of paintings on the ‘visual history of injustice’ by artist T. Murali, displayed at Town Hall as part of the centenary celebrations of Misra Bhojanam, deals with such relatively unknown nuggets of history.
Buddhist past
Through his paintings, Mr. Murali tries to showcase Kerala’s Buddhist past. Amana was deciphered from a Tamil-Brahmi script found on a rim shred of a terracotta pot belonging to the second century AD, unearthed from the Muziris archaeological site.
The word Amana means a senior Buddhist or Jain monk. The usage establishes beyond doubt the presence of Jainism and Buddhism in Kerala thousands of years ago.
‘Thalappoli’, for instance, was actually ‘thala-ppoli’, a celebration carrying the severed ‘thala’ (head) or tongues of Buddhists or Jains on a plate after they were trounced in a fierce debate with Brahminical scholars.
Mr. Murali claims that the ritual must have been co-opted in the later day Hinduism by replacing human parts with coconut and flowers.
The main focus of the paintings, however, is Nangeli, the lower caste woman whose brave act of slitting her breasts led to the scrapping of the barbaric practice of ‘mulakkaram’ or charging tax from women for covering their breasts, in then Travancore. Mr. Murali says the Travancore State was built by the sweat and blood of the oppressed classes who had to pay heavy taxes for even growing a moustache! The king pampered Brahmins and used the Shudra Nairs to suppress any voice of dissent.
He also disrobes the myth surrounding the Mookambika temple in Kollur, Karnataka, by showing a picture of the original idol believed to have been installed by Adi Shankara.
Mr. Murali says the head band on the idol is similar to those worn by Jain monks, and that the idol must have been the symbol of a Jain woman monk whom Shankara must have defeated in a debate.
The artiste also deals with contemporary issues such as the murder of CPI(M) rebel T.P. Chandrasekharan; historical facts such as Gandhi’s murder; and the controversial death of Sister Abhaya.
