Irulars cultural tradition (Masi Magam Festival )

Introduction: 

Irulars are adivasis are living adjoining the forest depending on the forest for their livelihood. They have their own culture, which is unique in nature. They possess rich knowledge of herbal medicine. The majority of Irulars are living in north Tamil Nadu especially the districts of Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur, Villupuram and Cuddalore. They also do back water fishing as part of their livelihood.

Irula Woman

Origin and history:

Aadi Irulas

Irulars are one of the most backward tribes who are facing innumerable challenges. The name Irular bear a reference to the dark jungles they live in. A legend says that goddess was interested to create people who could collect honey without being stung by bees, and she created one out of her sweat, who was successful in collecting honey without being stung. Even now it is said that bees and wild life flee at the smell of Irulars sweat.   Another legend speaks of origin from irular Mara (tree)

   Irulars are classified into various subgroups based on linguistic and social variations. These are Malenadu Irular, Kasaba, Vettakkara Irular, Urali Irular and Villiyan. The first four subgroups share similar ethnic and linguistic features but with slight variations, and are mostly found in Nilgiris and so referred to as Nilgiri Irulars.  Villiyans (villu meaning bow -a reference to hunter) are ethnically and linguistically different. They speak Tamil dialect, and are also referred to as pambukaran (snakeman). They are the one found in Chengalpetu region.

Every clan among the Irular has its own chief called naatamkar, who also doubles up as medicine man and priest. Irulars are known for their expertise in snake bite treatment. It is interesting to read that they use powdered mixture of eight types of plants for snake bite. The bark of the tree (kuruvi or kodachaali) is given to the bitten person to chew if the patient gets sweet taste then it is identified as poisonous bite while if it tastes bitter then it is non poisonous.  After ascertaining poisonous bite, further steps are taken. And yes it is recorded to have worked. By the way leafs of vottam talai (couldn’t locate the scientific name) tree are used to commit suicide. Organic suicide anyone?!!

Kanniamma is the principal deity (Mariyamma in case of Nilgiris– Thurston mentions it as being Goddess of small pox) other deities are influenced by Hindu gods. Kanniamma is represented by five pots arranged in square with a single pot in centre filled with turmeric water. Some trees too are considered sacred, as also the termite mound. The fame of Irulars may lie in snake catching skills but their primary occupation happens to be honey collection, toddy tapping.  Irulars though non vegetarians avoid beef, rabbits, rats; porcupine etc is on the menu roasted termites are a culinary delicacy.

Kannimar varniththal is a Irularfortune teller; he beats the drum and shakes while his wife sprays turmeric water over him. Soon he is possessed by Kanniamman. His wife unties his tuft of hair, he shakes rapidly and hisses like snake. He calms and addresses the crowd as if he is the goddess, saying.

 Masi magam:

Masi  Magam festival 

Every year in Tamil month of Masi (11^th month of Tamil calendar) celebrated magam festival, which falls on full moon day of masi. All the Irulars will assemble in the sea shore of historical place of Mahaballipuram. They worship their goddess Kanniammal. Their faith is that on that day after the prayer they will take Kanniammal to their house.

There are 7 Kannis, which means virgin girl. The seven kannis are- Ahaya kanni (sky), Antharakanni (salastrial), Javathukanni, allikanni, (water lilly), sonaikanni (spring), manjal kanni, (turmeric) etc.

Cultural Festival at seashore 

The day of Magam (one of the star in Hindu tradition) especially in the month of Masi gather in front of the temple called “Allava kovil”, which is located on the sea shore of Mahaballipuram. There is a “vellikambam” (pillar), which situated in front of the temple, where all souls will be present on particular day. This is the reason for the significant of the festival. It is paying homage to all the ancestors.

On the day of Magam festival all Irulars will gather at Mahaballipuram despite of their distance. It is overnight celebration. The method of worship is unique. They make steps on the sand; it will be 7, 16 or 21, which will be depends up on once vow. All the family will engage in auspicious activities such as marriage, spearing the ear and shaving the head etc. In olden days people had to walk for even 15 days to reach Mahaballipuram. The entire community will stay on the beach. It is time for joy and celebration. In other words informally organized larger social network.

ITWWS’s intervention:

After the formation Irular Tribal Women Welfare Society (1986) identified Masi Magam festival as an occasion to create awareness among the Irular community as well as among the government officials. During the last more than 20 years ITWWS organizing cultural activities on the shore of Mahaballipuram, it aims to sensitize the people and raise the issues to the government. It is widely recognized by the Irular community. The federation members will perform various cultural activities and share their experience of community development. The government officials will be invited and witnessed the Irular’s culture and able listen to their issues. In other words, it is informal dialogue between Irular community members and government officials.

They named their Federation after their goddesses Kanniamma Irular women federation. The organization is doing excellent work in the field of Livelihood, education, health, political awareness, and conservation of environment. Irular are possessing rich traditional knowledge of medicinal system, which is based on natural products. They are love nature and take relentless effort to preserve. ITWWS has beautiful campus at Thandrai village, which is between Chengalpatt and Thirukalukundram. It is man made forest, which is maintained by the community. It is unique centre keeps almost good variety of east Deccan tropical forest trees.  Let us join hands and empower the Irular community and conserve Mother Nature along with them. 

  

Acknowledgement:

Thank you Mr.K.K.Rajendran (CEO) Irular Tribal women welfare society 

Widening the Scope of the Chanceless

People’s Action for Development-PAD is social organization working for the empowerment of marginalized section of the society such as fisher folk and palmyrah tapers of Gulf of Mannar region, which spreads from Rameswaram to Thoothukudi. The region is semi arid depending on rain fed agriculture and fishing as main source of income. In the Gulf of Mannar region one third of the population constitutes fisher folk among them 83 to 93% of fisher folk practices traditional methods of fishing using traditional boats.

 Village profile:

Vembar south and north constitutes 2 panchayats (elected local governing body) having population of 13000, among them 62% are fisher folk, the remaining are agriculturalist and others. Vembar comes under Vilathikulam block of Thoothukudi district. Since Vembar bordering thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram districts PAD could serve people of both districts. Thus Vembar VRC is covering Kadaladi block of Ramanathapuram and Vilathikulam block of Thoothukudi districts. There are 3 Village knowledge Centres under Vembar VRC namely- Thangamalpuram (agricultural village), Rochmanagar (fishing village) and Keelavaipar. The following table is self evident of villages-

Sl.No	VRC/VKC	Name of the village	Name of the block	Name of the district	To No. of population
1	Village resource Centre	Vembar	Vilathikulam	Thoothukudi	13000
2	Village Knowledge Centre	Rochmanagar	Kadaladi	Ramanathapuram	1600
3	Village Knowledge Centre	Thangamalpuram	Vilathikulam	Thoothukudi	1350
4	Village Knowledge Centre	Keelavaipar	Vilathikulam	Thoothukudi	3200

Situation prior to intervention:

The blocks of Kadaladi (Ramanathapuram) and Vilathikulam (Thoothukudi) are witnessing major migration due to reducing livelihood opportunities. The rapid salination of ground water, depletion in fish catch and inadequate income from palmyrah tapping are few reasons for heavy migration.  People were deprived of accessing to basic amenities such as quality education, health, alternative livelihood, road facilities and approximately 50 to 60 kms combine with poor transport denied the connectivity for with government officials especially district administration.     the target people are fisher folk and palmyrah tappers are who constitutes as the poor of the villages. According to 2001 census all 98 coastal villages of Gulf of Mannar comes under below poverty line i.e. family which has income of less than Rs. 24000 per year.

Both fisher folk and palmyrah tappers are often subjected to exploitation of money lenders due to their seasonal occupations. The people of the region are deprived of alternative livelihood resulted in migration of labour force (50 to 60%) to other neighbouring towns and cities. In this context PAD along with able support of International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) promoted the concept of Village Resource Centre (VRC) to cater the needs of the villages  in and around Vembar, which is the base of the PAD (fishing village) belongs to Thoothukudi district comes under state of Tamil Nadu, India.

Diversification of livelihood:

In early 2004, PAD conducted Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) followed by focused group discussion in its target villages, which enabled PAD to identify the key issues, problems along with causes and needs of the villagers. The key issues are UN available of adequate livelihood, access to basic amenities, access quality education are few. The main cause for the issues is inadequate information and lack of knowledge on various aspects that are required to strengthen their life and livelihood. In order to bridge the rural urban divide, ICT enabled Village resource centre and Knowledge centers were established as a hub and spokes model. The purpose of VRC and VKC is to strengthen the five capitals such as Natural, Social, Human, Physical and Financial by diffusing different technology as a tool for development. This added one more capital as Information to the existing five capitals. Different forms of services namely providing content, capacity building and linkages relating to diversification of livelihood enhancement. Content like fish prone zone, wave heights, weather details, season based agricultural information that are crucial for both fishing and farming community are provided. Capacity Building in terms of trades that meets local needs such as Boya making, boat engine repairing, herbal cultivation, fish pickle making, simple chemical products were provided for enabling alternate livelihood. The villagers are linked with banks, cooperatives, District Rural Development Agency and welfare departments for accessing financial resources and Government schemes and entitlements.

The initiatives of PAD on establishing computer centres (May 2005) in the villages in order to build the capacity of the school drop outs and local youths with computer literacy were later converted (Mid 2006) as a Village Resource Centre and Knowledge centres. The transformation of the centre with knowledge and information services paved the way for people to access the required information and knowledge to fulfill their needs, which made the people to realize the fact of Knowledge / Resource centre.

To add further, the Boya training expanded as a viable enterprise for a group of fishermen at Rochmanagar which fetch them additional income in an average of Rs.1200/- per month as profit. In addition to financial benefits, the Boya enabled the fishermen to access the boat that is anchored 200 to 300 m away from shore also protect them from the poisonous fish called jelly causes allergy leading to even death. Once the community realized the significance of the knowledge centres, it is being maintained and managed by the villagers itself through Village Development Committee which is formed with the facilitation of PAD.

Challenges / Constraints:

                                                                                      

Any intervention has some or other challenges.  When new KW is assumed the role, the induction period slow the process of delivering services through VKCs.  

Secondly The Government officials in various departments like Animal Husbandry are not responding adequately.

In order to facilitate wider connectivity, the advanced form of adequate technology like satellite connectivity is required, which can be provided through   ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization).

Present Status:

After the withdrawal of MSSRF support (April 2009), VKCs has completely owned by communities through Village Development Committee (VDC), which is facilitated though PAD. VRC and VKCs continue to provide the computer literacy courses such as Microsoft Unlimited Potential Programme (MUPP), Tally, basic computer literacy and Computer Aided Learning Programme (CALP).

S. No	Courses	Male	Female	Total
1	Basic in Computer	592	787	1379
2	MUPP (Microsoft Unlimited Potential Program)	108	290	398
3	DTP (Desktop Publishing)	106	140	246
4	Tally Graduate	79	98	177
5	CALP	96	125	221
6	Users	947	1295	2242

The computer literacy course provided through VKC facilitated the users to secure employment in range of positions such as DTP Operators, Photo editors in Studios, Medical shops, computer instructors etc and earn to the extent of Rs. 3000/- to Rs. 12,000/-. PER MONTH

The selection of diversified livelihood options ensured additional and alternative income for different groups. Through simple chemical training, women group at Vembar involved in manufacturing of toiletries which is marketed locally. The promotion of herbal cultivation in Thangamalpuram provides supplementary income to the farming community especially in off-seasons. The training on tailoring paved 20 women at Thangamalpuram ensures an average income of Rs.70/- per head per day and the scope for the unit has expanded as there were requests from export companies. The training on fish pickle preparation motivated women group at Vembar to launch the fish pickle unit which has marketing feasibility locally.

Senthurapandiyan, a farmer from Thangamalpuram village expressed “VKC moolama kodutha payirhikku pinnalathan enga velila irukira mooligaikala adaiyalam kandukolla mudinchudhu. Aduthan enakku kooduthal varumanatha koduthathu” (The training on Herbal cultivation enabled me to identify the herbals which are grown in our fence. It gives me an additional income).

Vasanthi from Thangamalpuram voiced “Computer payirchiyin moolam, pesuvatharku thannambikkaiyum, dhairiyamum vanthathu” (The Computer training gave me courage and self confidence to communicate with others)

                           

Acknowledgement:

I thank Ms.Sharan & Ms.Vasanthi of PAD for collecting the data.

      

“Bare foots stabilizing the grass roots”

“Bare foots stabilizing the grass roots”

Mr. Vanniaraj a trained ‘bare foot vet” from Surangkudi village of Thoothukudi district  of Tamil Nadu in India said ’ munnadi nuthuku iruvithanju adukal iranthathu annal ippo  athu anjilarunthu pathu sathavitham kuranjurukku.”  (The mortality rate of cattle was 25% in the village but now it has reduced 5 to 10% in our village. For instance, similar scenario is prevailing in other villages too.).

The Gulf of Mannar is spread over 10500 sq kms starting from Rameswaram to Thoothukudi. It is declared as marine bio reserve which possesses rare and endangered species such as sea horse, sea cucumber, and duehong-duehong as well as more than 200 commercially exploited fishes.

People’s Action for Development (PAD) is social organization engaged in empowering the marginalized section of the society such as fisher folk and Palmyra tapers of Gulf of Mannar region starting from Rameshwaram to Thoothukudi which fall under state of Tamil Nadu, India. It covers two districts namely Ramanathapuram and Thoothukudi, which are economically backward. Thus the people of the region deprived of accessing to basic amenities.

One third of the population constitutes fisher folk and the remaining are small and marginal farmers, Palmyra tappers and others landless labours.

The region is dry and semi arid dependent on rain fed agriculture, which leave the farming community very little opportunity to earn their living. Since agriculture become gamble of monsoon, people of the region are forced to look for alternative livelihood for their survival. The problem for the region is receiving inadequate income from agriculture and fishing, which are main source of income of the region. Both occupations are seasonal fetches less income for the people. The reasons are inadequate rain for the agriculture, advent of mechanized boats and trawlers in fishing major problems.  

When PAD conducted Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and focus group discussion in the target villages of Kadaladi,Thiruplani blocks of Ramanathapuram district and vilathikulam block of Thoothukudi district it could identify cattle rearing is viable option, which it thought will add strength to economic stability of the community.

The region did not have high yielding cattle varieties. The cattle which are found in this region are called as ‘non descriptive animals” and are confined to same area. A non-descriptive animal means local variety of catels and goats, which are not high yield in other words the home of the species is same region. Goat, sheep, cows, bullocks, buffalos, pigs, hens and cocks are few cattle are available in the region.

Secondly, the treatment for sicknesses among the cattle was a big problem. Some of the common disease which was prevalent among the cattle in the region is enteritis, bronchitis, fevers, laminitis, sprained, open wound, conduced wound, and acid dosismastitis. 

The accessibility of the people to the veterinary doctors or to veterinary facilities was almost nil. The people had to walk about 12 to 30 km to bring a doctor to treat their sick cattle, due to which they loose their valuable time and money. This unfortunately happened to be major factor for the people not pursuing cattle rearing.

Therefore, PAD facilitated to discuss among the community members through village focus group discussion and village level meetings various options were discussed to strengthen the additional income for the people. Catel rearing prioritized by the people. The pros and corns of the catel rearing were discussed. The non medicle services for the catels seem to be major hinderence. There after, in order to solve availing medical service for the catel the different ways were discussed. The options are lobbying for government medical service in the region, appointing separate doctors. The lobbying will take long time and appointing doctors will take lots of money. Then the community members along with team came with an idea to trained educated youths in the community. 

Thus, the plan of developing Para medical group also called as ‘Bare foot Vets’ (BFV) from the community itself, considering that it will help in eradicating the problem of non-availability of veterinary assistance on time and within their reach. The idea convinced the community to go ahead with the cattle rearing activities.

Now, in order to develop ‘bare foot vets’ there were 44 youths identified covering 3 blocks of 2 districts with the help of community. Among them 9 were young women. The reason for promoting youths is because they can move consistently and response to emergency. More over this would be an additional income for those trained youths other wise they might have migrated to other places for employment. The identification of youths was done through the Village Development Committee, which is formed by PAD to facilitate the overall growth of the village.  The selection was done on the basis of their fluency in reading and writing, basic know how of English, having own residence in the local area, having interest in cattle rearing and protecting and available at anytime to serve the needy with pleasure.

All these 44 members were given a 15 day training on first aid and the maintenance capacity to give a better treatment. The content of training included the aspects like identifying the disease, the prevention methods, vaccination & the reproduction methods. Not only have the members had been introduced by the VDC to have the recognition in their village but also they have the capacity to handle the veterinary medical methods directly.

Apart from the training session on the various subjects, many exposure visits organized to various institutions, universities and farms such as Veterinary and animal sciences university of Namakkal, Hassarguttah animal farm of Bangalore and farmers training centre of Rajapalayam to animal husbandry problems.

At the end of the training, the youths were provided with medical kits which enabled them to start their work soon after completion of the training.

To ensure the growth and development of the BFVs, PAD also ensures monthly orientation to refresh their knowledge. Apart from this the capacity enhancement process is also facilitated through on job facilitation during their joint action with the veterinary doctor (who is registered practicenare) of PAD in all the target villages.

Promoting bare foot vet was not easy task naturally and PAD faced some hurdles to cross-

·         It took few months to convince the community to recognize bare foot vets.

·         The government veterinary doctors of the near by towns often played degrading tricks to de-motivate the bare foot vets and propagating false campaigns.

·         Transportation and storage of medicines was another challenge faced as the medicine had either to be brought from Thoothukudi(60 kms) or Madurai(120 kms).

The above-mentioned challenges over came by a result of our constant effort such as motivational meeting at the village level, bring and storage the medicines in advance, which will be assessed at the monthly meeting of bare foot vets.  As a result of the availability of the BFVs, now the community have got easy access to the veterinary services and therefore more people have invested in goat rearing According to one of our federations report there are 800 women have invested in goat rearing in all 72 villages of PAD target area, which happened during last 2 years (End of 2006 to 2008).  All these women are availing our services from barefoot vets.  The following table will be self explanatory of the impacts of bare foot vets. The data has drawn from 35 working villages of PAD- Details of cattels in 35 villages of Gulf of Mannar region

Sl.no	Particulars of cattle’s	2005	2009
1	Indigenous cattels	1097	1252
2	Crossbreed cattels	106	226
3	Indigenous calf	253	695
4	Sheeps	3742	4943
5	Goats	5731	9667
6	Poultry	10735	13139

  

Secondly, especially after inducing barefoot vets, the death rate of animals has reduced in our 72 target villages. to Mr. Sundramanicam (member of VDC Thangamalpuram village) stated that ‘kalnadai paniyalarkal moolam engalathu gramathil 30 sathavitham kalnadaikal koodiyulathu. Athumattumalamalkalnadai irappu vikitham 20% irunthu 10% aka kurainthulladhu.” ‘After introducing barefoot vets in our village 30% increase in cattel rearing. Not only has that there isin reduction of mortality rated among cattel, which is from 20% to 10%.” Thirdly, using their capacities One BFV is earning around Rs. 2500 as an additional income in a month.  

In observation, it has come out that a cattle rearing has added strength of the people’s life. For example, a woman who has 2 goats gets Rs. 7500 in a year, which is additional income for the family. (Any case sample will be useful to support the data)

The striking fact is that this small initiative is bringing and can bring big time changes in the lives of people. Bare foot vets are not only earning for their own livelihood but are also contributing towards enhancement of community livelihood.

Acknowledgement

I thank Dr. Santhanam and Ms. S Divya of PAD for collecting data.

The Forgotten monuments

The Forgotten monuments

 During the early hours of Sunday, on 18^th November 2012 a group of socially conscious people belonging to various part of Madurai assembled in front of Madurai Kamraj University to proceed to towards 2300 years old monument. A group of people in Madurai initiated Green Walk to protect the micro eco system in and around Madurai city, which also has historic significance

Glorious of Madurai:

Madurai has surrounded by mountains, which bears the name of animals such as Yanai malai (Elephant Mountain), Nagamalai (Cobra Mountain) and Pasumalai (Cow Mountain). Madurai is one of the oldest cities in the world. The history goes back beyond 2500 years. The city has referred by various Greek scholars in different time like Periplus, Ptolemy etc. Madurai had trade with ancient Europe and west Asia through its port at Korkkai.

The spread of Jainism:

India is home of major religions inn the world such as Hinduism, Buddism,Jainism and Seekism. Though Jainism born in the North of India it spread widely in the south. The Jain monks developed many centres of worship, which grew as hub of trade and religious activities. In Madurai district the Indian Archaeological Department identified    as many as 15 centres. They are-

      

01	Karangalakudi
02	Keelavalavu
03	Harithapatti
04	Kidaripatti
05	Yanamalai
06	Thiruvathavur
07	Thiruparamkundram
08	Keelakuyilkudi
09	Vikramangalam
10	Mettupatti
11	Puliyangulam
12	Thenparamkundram
13	Mangulam
14	Varichiyur
15	Karadipatti

The above-mentioned places are invariably situated in hillocks or mountains. All the caves are used as place for retreat. Their contribution to tamil language is enormous. The major texts such as Silapathikaram, Sivagasinthamani, valaiavathi are written by jain monks. The famousTamil collection Naladiar are also jain monks contribution.

Mettupatti-Sittarmalai:

Sittarmalai is located west ofmadurai around 35 kms  on way to Usalampatti and Madurai. The lush green and beautiful mountaingives joyand peace. The mountain is locally called Sittarmalai, which means mountain belongs to sittars.  In Tamil Sittars usually known as religious wanderer.

Sittar has 15 beds in the top of mountain cave, which is used by Jain monks in different times. According Mr. Santhalingam (archeologist)from Madurai these caves are belong to B.C 2cd century. The Mettupatti inscription  is earlist eveidence for name”Madurai”. The inscription is written bhrami script but the language used  is tamil. The inscription mentions the word “amanan, Madurai”  The tamil word “amanan” denotes Jain. The inscription follows Tholkapaiam’s grammatical paten. The inscription also describes the sponsor of the bed and jain monk’s name. For  instance one of the bed was sponsored by “Pidil Athan”, in which “Pidil” is name of the village  is located near to Mettupatti and “Athan” is name of the person. More over, Mettupatti is located in “peruvazhi” literally  means grate root. During the olden days Pandiya kingdom and Chera kingdom was connected by a big road, ( which was used by all kind of traders. The trade root is Kambam, Chinamanur,Virapandi, Mettupatti, Vikramangalam, Keelakuyilkudi and Madurai.

Need for conservation:

Monument like Sidder malai is though identified by Archaeological Survey of India and documented but in terms of maintains it is poorly done so. The mountain is surrounded by cernity of Vaigai river bedand lush green coconut groves as well as paddy field added moment of joyfulness. The indiscriminate greedily illicit digging of mountains in and around Madurai for granites is real threat for historically important monument like this. It needs to protect at least for naming Madurai as place. Social volunteers who have concern for Mother Nature this time for now to stand up against exploitation our local echo system like mettupatti malai.