N. Bhanutej
This is no hill shrine surrounded by thick tropical forests. Nor do devotees have to trek miles to reach Lord Ayyappa's abode. Shantamalai Ayyappa Swamy Temple is located in the dry and rocky Mulbagal in Karnataka, 20km from the Andhra Pradesh border on the busy Bangalore-Tirupati highway.
All the rituals practised in Sabarimala are religiously adhered to at Shantamalai. Devotees from the poorer regions of Andhra Pradesh, who cannot afford a trip to Sabarimala, come to Shantamalai. But much as it aspires to be like Sabarimala, Shantamalai is the antithesis of Ayyappa's hill abode in Kerala in the strictest sense. Whereas women in the age group of 10-50 are denied entry at Sabarimala, the priestess in Shantamalai is a woman in her forties-Shantakumari, a Dalit who was formerly an officer in the Karnataka Administrative Services. "No other person is allowed to touch the idol," she told THE WEEK.
When asked what she thought of allowing women into the Sabarimala temple, she said: "Women should not go to Sabarimala. Lord Ayyappa is a yogi and that is why he is sitting far away in the forest. He is a brahmachari. He does not like women. The consequences of women going there will be bad."
But how does Shantakumari justify her not only entering the temple but bathing the idol? She flared up: "Don't you know who I am? I gave birth to Ayyappa. He is my son. As mother, I have the right to clean, feed and look after my son."
Unlike in Sabarimala, women devotees are allowed into Shantamalai. "Earlier, I was strictly against allowing women into our temple," said Shantakumari. "Then my husband intervened on their behalf." The temple is open only on Saturdays during the 'lean season'. Shantakumari, her husband, Ramachandrappa, whom she calls 'Ardhanareeshwara', and their two sons live in Bangalore. "I don't trust any priest to run my temple," Shantakumari said. "They will swindle money and, worse, nobody will know that this temple is mine. That's why pujas happen only when I am here."
Treading effortlessly from the world of reason to belief and superstition, Shantakumari asserted her right to priesthood. She even claimed that the Lord has passed on his powers to her. The Jaimala incident (THE WEEK, July 16), she said, was planned by the Lord so that the world would come to know of Shantamalai! How she came to build the temple is interesting. Her first contact with Ayyappa happened through her driver in 1999. "He was a devotee," she said. "When he played Ayyappa songs in the car, I got vibrations and I cried. I told my husband to visit Sabarimala." When they went to buy black robes for her husband to wear on the pilgrimage, the shopkeeper 'mysteriously' gave her a black sari. As she reached Pampa on the way to Sabarimala, the vibrations increased! "I felt powerful after I wore the black sari," she said. "I am an ordinary woman, but they gave me a room in the VIP guest house. The milk they gave me to drink tasted like tiger's milk." She claimed that a friend had tried to take her to the hill shrine, but it did not work out.
"On the way back, Lord Ayyappa came with me," Shantakumari claimed. In Bangalore the Lord appeared in her dreams. "When I told people about the dreams and that Ayyappa had come to our house and had asked me to build a temple for Him, I was taken to the hospital where I remained for two months. They tried to kill me. It was like a rebirth. I became a child again."
This period, it appears, was a traumatic phase for Shantakumari as she faced a CBI investigation in a multi-crore rupee misappropriation scandal as well. She and her husband were jailed for a few months following the investigation in 2001.
When asked how much it cost her to build the temple, she flew into a rage: "We can't tell you that. Nobody knows where the money came from. It was the Lord's miracle. We didn't have any money when we started constructing it. I did manual labour, saved money on our food and children's expenses. People say it cost me Rs 3 crore, and that I had misappropriated Rs 10 crore while in service. I can't forget how debtors came here to reclaim their loans."
The few people who come to the temple do so to seek favours-in cash or kind-from Shantakumari. Said Srinivasa Gowda from Kantharaj Circle: "When they started the temple, she used to give money to people who went there. After the investigation, she has scaled down the activity." Shantakumari claimed that the poor see her as God: "They come to see me, not Ayyappa, so that they can get something," she said.
A little knowledge is an emasculating thing, and, some policemen in Kozhikode proved it the other day. Six persons, who were arrested from a 'massage centre' which allegedly doubled as a sex den, were subjected to a potency test and the doctor's verdict went thus: "There is nothing to suggest that they are incapable of sexual intercourse." Seeing the words 'nothing' and 'incapable', the confused policemen wrote down in their report that all six were impotent.
© (except the blatantly ripped-off bits) Random Bozo 2006