Coimbatoreans would be enthralled to take a trip into their native town’s past. However, with the city during the pre-lockdown days having a handful of book shops, selling only school and college textbooks, the ones on the history of Coimbatore, would be something new to most book sellers in the city.
Coimbatoreans would be enthralled to take a trip into their native town’s past. However, with the city during the pre-lockdown days having a handful of book shops, selling only school and college textbooks, the ones on the history of Coimbatore, would be something new to most book sellers in the city.
With studies in schools and colleges being only to secure colourful marks and get placed in well-paid multinational IT companies and government departments, most students read few books outside their curriculum. Nevertheless, certain books on Coimbatore’s history like Ithuvo Engal Kovai, Kongumandala Sathakam, Engal Naattupuram, The Kongu Country, Kongunaattu Varalaru and many more have transcended generations, as they are still read, enjoyed and researched by a few history enthusiasts of the city.
Further sad is that most booksellers in Coimbatore have not even come across the authoritative records on the city’s history like The Coimbatore District Gazetteer, The Coimbatore District Manual, and A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, which were, at a later period, came out into voluminous books.
It is interesting to visit a different Coimbatore in 1800 A.D from Francis Buchanan’s book ‘A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar’, which is an authentic record of the social and economic conditions of the Kongu region. Buchanan, a botanist, geographer, and physician, came to Coimbatore on a day in 1800, after Lord Wellesley, the British Governor-General of India, appointed him to conduct a survey on the Mysore kingdom following the death of its ruler Tipu Sultan.
Though Buchanan stayed in Coimbatore only for three days, he jotted down in his diary what he saw and heard from the people. Had he not done so, a sample of Coimbatore's life in 1800 A.D would not have come to light.
On writing about certain castes in Coimbatore, Buchanan points out that the Kaikolas were well-read in Mathematics and they worked as accountants, teachers, doctors, and weavers. On Brahmins in Coimbatore, he informs that most men in the caste practised polygamy and each of them had more than one wife. The other communities, about which he writes, are Panchalar, Palliyar and Thorayar.
Later, when Buchanan visited Chennimalai, which is now in the present day Erode district, he was shocked to hear that about 100 people died due to chickenpox. He also wondered that the people had little awareness on immunization against the disease. He also writes that they were superstitious and they told him that the disease was nothing but the wrath of Goddess Mariamman!
On a night, when the people were getting ready singing songs and beating drums aloud to thank the deity Mariamman for providing cure against chickenpox, a Buchanan, who was tired after a long journey from Coimbatore town, says:
“I have little chance to sleep tonight”
Despite Coimbatore’s progress with its numerous industries, textile mills, and IT companies, the superstition of believing the attack of chickenpox as the wrath of a Goddess was rampant here until about four decades ago. And the phrase ‘Maariyaaththa Vanthirikku’ (Goddess Mariamman has arrived) to name the disease was very usual in the dialect of Coimbatore.
As the people had no practice of consulting a doctor either for smallpox or chickenpox those days, they had their indigenous ‘divine’ methods of treating the patient by making him or her lie on a white cotton dhoti, applying the paste of neem leaves on the blisters, feeding with tender coconuts and rock candy made of palmyra sap. Moreover, a string of peeled small onions tied around the patient’s neck would be the first identity to recognize the arrival of Maariyaatha in him or her!
Though many Coimbatoreans hardly know why the disease was referred to as the deity, it’s time we recalled the myth behind the Maariyaatha, who, according to Hindu mythology, was a widow rescued from dying in her husband’s funeral pyre.
Legend has it that goddess Renuka Devi (Later Mariamman) got killed by her husband sage Jamathakni after he was suspicious over her fidelity. But, it is painful to know that she was beheaded by her son Parasurama after Jamathakni ordered him to do so.
However, later on, when the sage asked his son what boon he wanted as a prize for his deed, the clever Parasurama expressed his wish to bring his mother back to life.
But, Renuka Devi came alive only to see her husband Jamathakni dead, as he had been killed by his enemies due to the previous enmity. At last, she jumped into Jamathakni’s funeral pyre to end her life. But Lord Indra rescued her by creating a sudden downpour, which put off the fire.
Now, the Goddess, whose body was full of burn blisters and clothed in bunches of neem leaves, entered a colony of some low caste people, who provided tender coconut and jaggery to her.
Legend also has it that Lord Siva, later, vested Renuka Devi with the power to punish the evildoers by creating blisters on their bodies and cure them after they realize their misdeeds. Hence, people worship the deity by offering Her neem leaves and tender coconuts.
Like the interpretation of smallpox and chickenpox as ‘Maariyaaththa’ the present-day Coimbatore too needs an interesting myth on the newborn ‘Corona Devi’ at Irugur – a village of historical importance on the city outskirts. The people of Coimbatore would be thankful to the godman who caused the birth of ‘Corona Devi’, if he could also create an interesting myth on ‘her’. In the boring days of lockdown, how delightful it would be to listen to a tale on the newborn Corona Devi.