Digital Encyclopedia of Indigenous Voices
Attappadi, Kerala, India
Ever-growing Online Repository, Oral Histories and Living Archive
What is Attappedia and Why?
Listen
Pregnancy Song from
Madurai Veeran Koothu
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The Written History of Attappadi
Valath V.V.K. (1986)
Chapter 12
"Attappadi"
PALAKKATU JILLA
Madurai Veeran Koothu
Madurai Veeran Koothu is a koothu (theatrical performance) from Thadikkundu village in Attappadi. It was once a popular performance in the region, especially among Kurumba communities.
The story of Madurai Veeran as told by people of Thadikkundu. Madurai Veeran was born to royal parents and was abandoned, and later adopted by a couple who found him while gathering firewood in the jungle. He grew up with them and became a guard who protected the frontiers. He fell in love with Bommi, daughter of the chieftan Bommanna Nayakan. Angered by the fact that Madurai Veeran and Bommi eloped, the chieftan sends an army against Madurai Veeran. After a search in the jungle, the army finds Madurai Veeran and Bommi, who steals a magical sword from the chieftan and helps Madurai Veeran win the battle against the army.
Shivaratri
Every year, Shivaratri is celebrated at Malleswaran Temple that belongs to Adivasi community in Attappadi.
Click to listen to the voices.
By Nanjan Mooppan
Vattalakki 2021
In the night, we used to gather around the fire and the elders would share their wisdom with us. They used to say “We lived in very different times, and now your lives are changing. How things are going to work…, how life will move…, how to live, how to get married…” And like their words, as days pass, and as the number of people grows, times are indeed changing!
In those days, the uttered words had truth in it, the spoken words had power.
Nowadays, it is not the spoken words that matter, instead, writing has the power.
By Kamala
Vattalakki 2021
To buy clothes, we needed money. Only when we sell what we have, we get money. I remember my parents tearing one piece of cloth into a few pieces to wrap it around our bodies to hide our shame.
Our ancestors had entire mountains and jungles at their disposal, out of which the village survived and subsisted with children and families. There was a lot of unutilized land everywhere. Our parents and grandparents didn't know the value of that land. They sold such lands for a sack of rice or a bag of corn. They gave it away for their needs, and now if we ask for it, do you think they will give it back? They have planted coconuts, mango trees, jackfruit trees, bananas in that land, and now if we ask them to return to where they came from and leave the jungle, do you think he will do so?
By Dorai
Nakkuppathi Pirivu 2021
In those days, we never heard such things. There was one year, in 1940's, no, in 1957 or 58, there was a cholera outbreak in our village. During that year, people were affected. And we did the medications ourselves. There was an old man who knew about medicines and he would attend to the sick. Once we clean the village and maintain hygiene, then it didn't come. We offered chickens for that, cut a chicken on that side of the village, then cut a chicken on this side, once you sacrifice chickens, the illness didn't affect anyone again.
We never went to hospitals. Back then they have only started the construction of Agali hospital. But we never allowed injections on our bodies. I have, for all these years, never been to a hospital, nor taken an injection. Recently I took the first injection of my life. That's the only one. Yes, all these years...no hospitals and no injections. This is the first one, and I have to get one more, its time for that, but they say they don't have stocks to administer.
By Raju
Abbannoor 2021
Raju: Let's try going this way...This is rice that doesn't require water to cultivate.
Sankar: From where did they bring this?
Raju: Don't know, they have planted it... This is chama...This is ragi (millets)...
Sankar: The other day I saw a woman standing here to chase the birds away.
Raju: This is keera, a green....When it grows, it produces seeds like this, like ragi. That can be eaten after pounding. Make a powder and eat with sugar.
By Kali Mooppan
Kottamedu 2021
In those days the food was different, now the food is different. We grew up eating ragi, chama, chola…Nowadays, people eat rice. Nowadays people don't listen, in those days people listened to each other. If a Mooppan (chieftain of the village), or Bandaari (person in charge of administration) or Kuruthala (assistant to Mooppan) said something like “refrain from going out of the village today because someone passed away”, people used to immediately stop all activities, both men and women, went to the river, did ablutions and rituals, ate and started singing and dancing. Today when someone dies, there is no one to dance. If you give something to drink, you might have a few who might dance, these days you also find people who drink and pass out and don’t dance. That's how things are today.
Suresh: How did you look after your health back then? Did you go to the hospital?
Reshi: Hospitals? In those days there were no hospitals. We took leaves, herbs and roots to cure any illness. We gave birth in our homes. I delivered five children in my home only. There were no surgeries. If God gave us, we got it, if not, that's how it is. Now we have injections, tablets, surgeries, doctors. We didn't live like that. I had never taken an injection in my life and now they put the corona injection, since then my health is ruined.
By Reshi
Uriyanchale 2021
Maruthy: We never went to hospitals in those days, we gave birth in our homes and we brought up our children well. There was one medicine woman who used to go from village to village to take care of people. There were no injections back then. But now the rules have changed. Now when someone is pregnant, there are mandatory hospital visits and routine check-ups to do, for this they have to go and come, back and forth from home to hospital several times, and sometimes it's quite strenuous and at times they give up. Then they say it's a case of infant death. The food was different in those days, we ate well wanting to be healthy. Now we eat powerless rice. The rules have changed and it has tricked us, no point in talking about this. We made our own food, we never went to work for wages, we worked in our land and made what we ate. In today's law, there is the minimum work guarantee scheme where you have to go to work, so you eat what you get and go to work. We have stopped eating ragi puttu (millet steam-cake), now nobody wants to eat that. And now they say we are malnutritioned and unhealthy, and have lost our vitality... We go to the hospital where the child dies, and the mother also dies. Difficult times, isn't it?
Suresh: Is the government doing something about this?
Maruthy: What can the government do? For each child's death they are giving Rs 100,000...yes, 100,000 for a case of infant mortality. That is the profit. The net loss is the life of a human being...
By Maruthy
Nellypathy 2021
Circumstances are quite different now, when compared to those days when my generations grew up. Now we have phones, TV, this and that and many new things, and that's the new world which we have to integrate into our lives.
A few from the village are also getting educated now, highschool education. The majority do only education till that stage, they don't get opportunities to go beyond that. Even if they get such opportunities, only a few are able to make use of those circumstances. After that they get married and life changes.
The children these days are difficult to control. They have laptops, computers, mobile phones, that's the world. We try our best to give proper education to our kids. Their intelligence is different from ours. Some are very keen to do higher studies, and for that they have to go out and travel far, but this makes them scared. Higher studies still remain a dream for many...
By Maruthan
Pattanakkalu 2021
By Kara
Vattalakki 2021
How are the future generations going to deal with their lives...? I have no clue, only the Gods know and it is in their hands.
The government promised the poor with many things and enticed us to resettle and in that hope we came here and settled in 1971. Promises of land, jungle, but nothing so far...And from my own experience and looking at what was done to me, I am not sure, I have no faith left in those words anymore. Will those promises be kept? How can I say, we keep praying to Gods, and how God shows us a way, only God knows.
I have grown old, I can't see properly, I can't walk easily...we are a few people left in this village now, half the village is already dead. When will our sorrows and miseries get counted?