Keralite Namboodari priests in North India #Synthesis

Now, what connection can Northerly Uttarakhand have with the Southern state of Kerala? Look at the map, the distance is so great, the cultures so different and though there is an extravagant mention by some history enthusiasts that the Nairs originated from the Newar community of Nepal, is there any connection between Kerala and Uttarkhand? Well, there is one, an interesting connection actually, and it has nothing to do with the cricket players Sreesanth and Dhoni.

The story starts around the 9th century, a period when many in India were followers of Jainist or Buddhist practices, be it in Kerala or Uttaranchal. Brahmanical Hinduism was on the rise and Sankaracharya from Kaladi in Kerala set out on an arduous trek crisscrossing most of India, propounding his principles. Just imagine what an amount of walking he would have done.

Uttaranchal or Brahmpur as it was known then, is certainly a locale of beauty, at the foothills of the Himalayas, near the southern slope of the great and young mountain range which I wrote about in a previous article, once densely wooded and under an immense roof of snow, ice and glaciers. It is said that the 16 mile drive from Govind Ghat to Badri, is perhaps the most incredible drive you can do anywhere in the world....

But continuing with Sankara, the young lad, all of 11 years old and his fellow disciples (many Dandi sanyasis) arrived at Badrinath in 814AD. As the story goes, he reached there early in the morning and the fresh breeze from the Sushmaand Gandhmadna Mountain got him going and he spontaneously started reciting the Ashtapadi. After diving into the Naradakunda in the Alakananda River, he found a saligrama idol of Vishnu on the third attempt and this was consecrated as Badrinath. The rituals and procedure of worship as laid out by Adi Shankaracharya some 1200 years ago since the consecration are being practiced at Badrinath even today....

Some of the Dandi (staff bearing senior) Brahmins remained to do the rites at the temple. It is mentioned that members of their clan remained on to continue this until the 17th or 18th century till they became extinct (which I doubt since these celibate sanyasis would not have created offspring!). After this time the appointment of Namboothiris from Kerala were appointed as priests of the temple as a norm.

Interestingly, Namboothiris themselves are not clear where they came from, other than that the Parasurama and/or the Kolathiri rajas brought them from Gokarnam. Nevertheless, it is stated by some that the original priests were Dandi Brahmins from the south and were Namboothiri associates of Adi Sankara. It is perhaps due to this reason that they continue to choose a rawal from amongst the Namboothiri community so that the same special Kerala Pooja format is continued.

The Rawal is assisted by a deputy and the rituals are all based on the Tantra-Vidhi of Shrauta, just like in the temples of Kerala....So as we saw, the Rawal (chief priest) was selected by erstwhile rulers of Garhwal and Travancore and accorded ‘his holiness’ status by the state governments of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh as well as being held in high esteem by the Royals of Nepal. These days, over 400,000 pilgrims come every years to Badrinath from all over India, traveling on roads constructed after the border war with China in the early 1960s...

As you can imagine, the temple is completely snow encased (As the legend goes, during winter months we have Narada performing daily worship, in the absence of humans) in the winters and so open only for six months in a year, from May to November. The idol is taken downhill, to Pandukeshwar, to continue daily worship till next May, after which it goes back to Badrinath. For six months in a year (during May to October i.e. roughly Vaisakh to Kartika), the Rawal performs his duties as a temple priest. Thereafter, he either stays in Joshimutt (a temple dedicated to Narasimha, another incarnation of Vishnu) or goes back to his ancestral village in Kerala....The Nayab Rawal or deputy Rawal is also a nambuthiri....

These days, the Uttaranchal government writes to the Kerala government to recommend a rawal, he being a Namboothiri with deep Sanskrit knowledge and well versed in pooja methods of Kerala and also a bachelor. The person must possess a degree of Acharya in Sanskrit and be of robust health and suitable for a tenure at the higher altitudes. A few recommendations are passed on and the Gahrwal head has the responsibility to choose one from the lot. The Rawal had to be a bachelor lest the ritual impurity arising from the birth of a child (sutakashaucha – Birth and death pula as we know in Kerala) render him unable to perform his duties.

The name is thus forwarded to the king of Tehri or the Tehri Garhwal who is the Bhalond-badri or tutelary head of Garhwal. At a tilak ceremony where a crimson tilak is ceremoniously applied on the chosen candidate, the rawal’s appointment gets completed. He was also provided a ceremonial Khilat or robe and a gold brocade umbrella. While this is theory, in practice it could be so that a deputy or nayab rawal, also a nampoothiri, applies for the post and gets promoted.

Others who support the rawal are the Nayab Rawal, the Dharmadhikari or astrologer, the Vedapati (Veda reciter), other smaller priests, cooks, treasurers, singers, pandas, guards and so on. A panda (not the bear) or assistant leads each pilgrim group and one much choose his panda carefully, for the panda must possess good humor, be knowledgeable and energetic.

In the very old days, the shrine was patronized by the kings of Bengala and later by the King at Benares. Until 1939, the position of Rawal was very powerful and the priest had rights for all the offerings at the temple. The 1939 act changed it to a 7.5% percentage of offerings plus a fixed salary, much like the priests at Guruvayur. The Rawal himself takes up the responsibility at Badrinath while 2 or 3 others reside as back up and support at Joshimutt.

A 1903 article provides this interesting description - The priests at Kedarnath, Badrinath, Guptkashi, Ukhimath, Jungnath, and Joshimath are all Madrasies. The principal burial-places (I would assume the British writer actually meant cremation grounds) of these priests are at Ukhimath and Joshimath. The High Priest of Kedarnath is directly under the British Government. The High Priest of Badrinath is a servant of the Raja of Tehri-Garhwal. These Madrasies seem to enjoy excellent health, and most of them live to a great age. They usually wear white woolen clothing, gold worked belts round their waists, and handsome Madras puggries. They keep up a certain amount of state. They are in correspondence with the priests in the chief temples throughout India, as the pilgrims are drawn from every province and from every rank of society.

These worldly men have always been good talkers and listeners and being from Kerala are usually educated and speak a reasonable amount of English (though not possessing more than a working knowledge of Hindi). So they have been quoted over centuries by foreigners visiting the shrine, especially their chats during the afternoon times when the rawal meets visitors. In one such discussion during 1985, the Rawal informed that there was a bhairavi chakra cave beneath the idol. It appears that a former king used to ride into battle wearing the arm band of Bhairava which was kept under the Badrinath image. Donald Macintyre writing in the late 19th century recalls meeting the rawal from Kerala who was not so spiritual and more of the worldly type. The rawal he met actually accepted a box of gunpowder as a gift which he said would pass on to his son who was a shikari (I think that was a bluff- I am still to come across a namboothiri shikar!).

They are also not the fanatical kind and lent a calm ear to visiting missionaries who tried to teach them otherwise, as is evident from the account of Rev Sabine Mansell who wrote in 1896 – I made a tour towards Badrinath and walked to Mana village, the most northern inhabited point on that road. I distributed pamphlets and tracts to the pilgrims and presented a New Testament to the Rawal Sahib or high-priest, telling him that this is the only book in the world which will prevail and all the other false things will pass away.

The 1853 meeting between a Rawal and the Rev JH Budden is very interesting and ended with the reverend gifting the rawal with the New Testament and a copy of the genesis. But what is interesting is how the Namboothiri rawal explained his conviction - He is rather a young looking man, and has the appearance of a southern. His speech also bewrayeth him. He affects great liberality of sentiment in religion; and, after the usual formalities, began by saying that God is one, though there are various methods of worshipping him on earth, all equally acceptable to him, as many roads all lead to the same place; and that the various objects of worship were but so many different manifestations of him. He continued by declaring that kindness or benevolence was the chief thing. I am not recounting this in full as it goes into a number of pages, for those interested please study... - The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, Volume 31, pages 49-53.

http://maddy06.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-namboothiri-rawals-of-badrinath.html