A balika vadhu weds a balak var :-)

The conch had been sounded,the bugles blew,the sounds of the waves were music to her ears.As she stood on the shore,with the wet sand beneath her feet, and Chokkanathar by her side, Nayaki was immersed in thoughts of her oriental links.The week long festivities were coming to an end.Nayaki prayed for an obstacle free life as her Ganesha idol was slowly immersed into the Marina waters.


Earlier in the month the couple were in the temple town of Tiruchendur for a couple of days and a visit to the Murugan temple had rekindled memories of a very distant past, a hearsay though….an event that ,Nayaki was not a part of , an incident to which she was not a witness and yet the scenes now seemed to come flashing by in front of her as frames of real images .so crystal clear and amazingly vivid.

The Sarada Law was in force and yet child marriages were rampant in the first half of the twentieth century.Kannamani was a fatherless child.Her mother Ooramma had been widowed at a very young age.A victim of child marriage herself,Ooroo was left alone with a baby girl in her arms.As was the custom in those days,the young mother lead a life of a recluse.The helpless widow was shunned by her husband’s kin and she returned to her maternal home at Brahmakundam, a village in South Arcot district of Tamilnadu.

The only child of affluent parents,Ooramma raised her little girl in the village.The grandparents doted on the girl and Kannamani grew up to be a spritely little teenager.She was a pretty lass and a well disciplined girl too.

As was the practice in those days,the girl child did not attend regular school but learnt to speak,read and write chaste Thamizh from her learned grandfather .When grandfather set her free, mom and grandmom took turns in training her in housekeeping skills .The fatherless child was initiated into the mud and clay oven at a very tender age.....a rigorous regimen that she followed was grooming her in the direction of a search,a search for an eligible groom...and a handsome Krish swept her off her feet one fine day

The Mailam Murugan temple is located 15 kms from Tindivanam. According to the history of Mailam,Lord Murugan assumes a divine posture at Mailam with his consorts in the form of a bridegroom .Kannamani was a naive young teenage bride and Krishnamurthy was an innocent young groom.The Balika Badhu wedding was celebrated in the year 1930 with much fanfare in the temple town of Mailam . The typical Iyer wedding was a celebration packed with a kaleidoscope of tradition,color, glitz, music and dancing.....arty

 

Dear Akila Mani,
Its a part of a book i wish to publish....Thank u so much for liking my simple style