Retelling the Real Kerala Story

 

Legend has it that when the goddess Annapoorneshwari journeyed to Kerala from Kashi, she travelled in a golden boat. Accompanying her were subordinate deities but also, interestingly, Buddhists and Muslims; indeed, her ship’s captain was Muslim. After arrival, the goddess was consecrated at Cherukunnu, where her temple still stands. As for the captain who delivered her safely to her new home, on death he was buried nearby – at what is now the Oliyankara masjid, minutes away from the goddess’s shrine.

For those with an interest in Kerala’s culture, such tales are available in a surplus. Not mortals alone, but the gods also mingled here with one another, whether it is tribal deities sharing space with Sanskritic ones, or Christian saints with links to Hindu temples. The region’s social fabric conceded space to all major communities. At the duodecennial Mamankam (Maha-Magha) festival, for example, Muslims were participants; in southern Kerala, only oil ‘purified’ by the ‘touch’ of a Nasrani Christian was accepted in many orthodox Hindu kitchens and temples.