Today, we are indoors, observing the ‘Janata curfew’ to combat challenges posed by the outbreak of Coronavirus. The day brings back memories of the plague which hunted thousands of lives in Coimbatore between the years 1904 and 1927. The killer disease, which spreads from rats, is cited as an outcome of an earthquake that shook Coimbatore in 1900. Measuring 6 on Ritcher Scale, the earthquake perished many buildings in Coimbatore including a Roman Catholic chapel that stood near the Railway Station.
Today, we are indoors, observing the ‘Janata curfew’ to combat challenges posed by the outbreak of Coronavirus. The day brings back memories of the plague which hunted thousands of lives in Coimbatore between the years 1904 and 1927. The killer disease, which spreads from rats, is cited as an outcome of an earthquake that shook Coimbatore in 1900. Measuring 6 on Ritcher Scale, the earthquake perished many buildings in Coimbatore including a Roman Catholic chapel that stood near the Railway Station.
With God being the only path to escape pains in life, the people of Coimbatore identified the Omnipresent as their savior from all worldly woes. For instance, the deity Mariamman, who has different tags attached to Her as ‘Muthu’ Mariamman, ‘Thandu’ Mariamman, ‘Vilayaattu’ Mariamman and so on, later, took a strange avatar as ‘Plague’ Mariammanafter the outbreak of the plague!
The people also built shrines for the new deity in several spots of Coimbatore like Sengaadu and Papanaickenpalayam. The Goddess was named so in the belief that She would drive out the deadly disease, which took a heavy toll on human life at the beginning of the 20th century. However, as the name of the Goddess ‘Plague’ Mariamman later got corrupted to ‘Black’ Mariamman, many in Coimbatore know little about the new deity’s history. And it is no wonder that the same deity might take another new avatar as ‘Corona Mariamman’ if the disappearance of the pandemic was due to Her power.
Elderly Coimbatoreans still recollect the painful incidents of innumerable deaths caused by plague in the city. Besides, autobiographies penned by eminent persons of Coimbatore contain lively accounts of the despair experienced by their family members after the outbreak of the plague.
N Kannakutty in his book “En Sarithai’ records the hardship experienced by his mother in burying the dead body of his father. As no one dared to touch the dead body in fear of the epidemic, she had to beg everyone in the village Thoppampatti to arrange a burial for her departed husband.
The eminent trade unionist and Former MLA K Ramani, who came to Coimbatore from Kerala in search of a job, saw the death of his grandmother, mother, and brother successively in five days being victims to plague. He was, then, working as a servant in a hotel for a daily wage of Rs 3.
Film actor Sivakumar, in his autobiography 'Ithu Rajapaattai Alla' recalls how the plague took away his elder brother Shanmugam’s life at Sulur when the actor was just four years old.
Eminent Gandhian of Coimbatore “Kadhar” Ayyamuthu in his book Enathu Nanaivugal praises Mohammed Abdul Hafeez, the then Municipal Chairman of Coimbatore, for his selfless service during the plague hunt in the city. He traveled street after street in his coach and supervised the sanitation work carried out by the municipal workers in the plague-affected houses.
As the disease hunted down plenty of lives, Coimbatore witnessed scenes of dead bodies being carried to burial grounds on garbage vehicles of the municipality. At times, when the vehicles were in demand, the a dead body, fully covered in hay and fastened to a long pole of bamboo, was carried to the burial ground by a pair of sanitation workers.
With God being the only path to escape pains in life, the people of Coimbatore identified the Omnipresent as their savior from all worldly woes. For instance, the deity Mariamman, who has different tags attached to Her as ‘Muthu’ Mariamman, ‘Thandu’ Mariamman, ‘Vilayaattu’ Mariamman and so on, later, took a strange avatar as ‘Plague’ Mariammanafter the outbreak of the plague!
The people also built shrines for the new deity in several spots of Coimbatore like Sengaadu and Papanaickenpalayam. The Goddess was named so in the belief that She would drive out the deadly disease, which took a heavy toll on human life at the beginning of the 20th century. However, as the name of the Goddess ‘Plague’ Mariamman later got corrupted to ‘Black’ Mariamman, many in Coimbatore know little about the new deity’s history. And it is no wonder that the same deity might take another new avatar as ‘Corona Mariamman’ if the disappearance of the pandemic was due to Her power.
Elderly Coimbatoreans still recollect the painful incidents of innumerable deaths caused by plague in the city. Besides, autobiographies penned by eminent persons of Coimbatore contain lively accounts of the despair experienced by their family members after the outbreak of the plague.
N Kannakutty in his book “En Sarithai’ records the hardship experienced by his mother in burying the dead body of his father. As no one dared to touch the dead body in fear of the epidemic, she had to beg everyone in the village Thoppampatti to arrange a burial for her departed husband.
The eminent trade unionist and Former MLA K Ramani, who came to Coimbatore from Kerala in search of a job, saw the death of his grandmother, mother, and brother successively in five days being victims to plague. He was, then, working as a servant in a hotel for a daily wage of Rs 3.
Film actor Sivakumar, in his autobiography 'Ithu Rajapaattai Alla' recalls how the plague took away his elder brother Shanmugam’s life at Sulur when the actor was just four years old.
Eminent Gandhian of Coimbatore “Kadhar” Ayyamuthu in his book Enathu Nanaivugal praises Mohammed Abdul Hafeez, the then Municipal Chairman of Coimbatore, for his selfless service during the plague hunt in the city. He traveled street after street in his coach and supervised the sanitation work carried out by the municipal workers in the plague-affected houses.
As the disease hunted down plenty of lives, Coimbatore witnessed scenes of dead bodies being carried to burial grounds on garbage vehicles of the municipality. At times, when the vehicles were in demand, the a dead body, fully covered in hay and fastened to a long pole of bamboo, was carried to the burial ground by a pair of sanitation workers.